Today Atos announced the successful completion of their tender offer for all the issued and outstanding shares of French supercomputer vendor Bull. According to the company, the transaction clears the way for integration to begin and represents a key milestone in the creation of a world leader in Cloud, Cyber security, and Big Data.
I welcome this outcome,” said Philippe Vannier, Chairman and CEO of Bull Group. “The combination with Atos will give birth to a new industry leader and a recognized IT brand in Europe. The new entity will become #1 in Cloud private services in Europe and one of the key players in cyber security and Big Data.”
As of the settlement date set on August 18, 2014, Atos will consequently hold 84.25% of Bull’s share capital and voting rights based on the total number of shares outstanding as of July 31, 2014, and 18.41% of the company’s OCEANEs in circulation. The offer’s success was subject to reaching a 50% + 1 share threshold of Bull’s share capital and voting rights in accordance with the offer document approved by the AMF on June 24, 2014. This condition was met.
The success of the public offer represents a key step in our development project and I warmly welcome among us Bull’s 9,200 employees,” said Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos Thanks to them, Atos enters a new dimension with a stronger positioning in Cloud, Cyber security and Big Data. The new group will also be strengthened in Managed Services and Systems Integration. We can now launch the integration phase without further delay and start reorganizing and regrouping operations to generate the synergies announced.”
