Atos abandons plans to scoop up DXC Technology

Digital transformation powerhouse Atos SE has walked away from its proposal to purchase competitor DXC Technology.

On January 7, Atos confirmed the rumours that it had approached DXC “concerning a potential friendly transaction between the two groups in order to create a Digital Services Leader benefitting from global scale, talent, and innovation”.

At the time, Atos said there could be no certainty that there would in fact be any agreement or transaction resulting from the move.

On Tuesday, it was announced the deal would be no longer.

“Further to the statement issued by the company on January 7, 2021, the board of directors of Atos has unanimously determined not to pursue a potential transaction with DXC Technology,” Atos said in a statement.

DXC, meanwhile, said prior to receiving an “unsolicited, preliminary, and non-binding proposal” from the company, it had no knowledge of any interest from Atos.

The company said it declined the offer.

See also: Hearing Australia strikes digital transformation deal with DXC

“Consistent with its fiduciary duties, the DXC board of directors carefully evaluated the proposal, together with its financial and legal advisors. The offer was determined to be inadequate and lacking certainty in light of the value the board believes DXC can create on a standalone basis by executing our transformation journey,” DXC said.

“After sharing certain high-level information in order to help Atos understand why the board believes the proposal undervalued DXC, Atos and DXC today agreed to discontinue further discussions.”

DXC Technology was formed in April 2017 as the result of the merger of Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) and the Enterprise Services arm of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

At the closure of the deal, the IT services giant was valued at $26 billion and boasted nearly 6,000 clients in more than 70 countries, with the combined companies claiming only a 15% overlap in accounts at the time.

For the second half of its 2021 fiscal year, DXC reported a net loss of $445 million, comprised of a $199 million loss in Q1 and $246 million in Q2. This was on revenue of $9 billion for the six month period.

Non-GAAP net income was $220 million and net cash provided by operating activities was $591 million. 

DXC is due to release its third quarter results on Thursday.

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