The French IT giant Atos announced Thursday that it is in discussions with Airbus for the European aeronautics and defense group to acquire 30% of Evidian, the company that Atos must create to house its cybersecurity activities in particular.
"
Atos announces that it has received an indicative offer from Airbus to enter into a long-term strategic and technological agreement and acquire a 29.9% minority stake in Evidian
," the company said in a statement.
In difficulty, Atos is restructuring its digitization, cybersecurity and high-performance server consulting activities, bringing them together in a new entity called Evidian, which it intends to list on the stock exchange in the second half of the year and for which it wishes to back a reference investor.
The "
indicative offer
" presented by Airbus, already present in cybersecurity activities, is deemed "
consistent
" with Atos' plan, according to the IT group.
“
Atos does not plan to grant exclusivity to Airbus, and no certainty can be provided as to the outcome of the negotiations and the conclusion of a set of definitive agreements between the parties
”, he warns however.
Thales had thus indicated that it was not seeking a stake in Evidian, but did not hide that the cybersecurity activities of the future entity could interest it.
Orange is also reputed to be eyeing activities within the scope of Evidian, as is the IT consulting group Onepoint, which in September made a proposal to take over Evidian, rejected "unanimously" by the company's board of
directors
. 'Atos.
Airbus boss Guillaume Faury confirmed his interest in Evidian in early January.
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According to Atos, "
the combination of Airbus' capabilities with Evidian's global leadership position in managed security services and supercomputers would create a leading European player in the field of cybersecurity and in the digitalization of the defence, public safety and critical national infrastructure sector
”.
