IT Firm Atos Wants To Buy Bull

French firm Atos has revealed it wants to buy fellow Gallic company Bull, even though it is currently bidding for another tech business Steria.

According to Atos, its €620m (£502.15m) bid for Bull does not have any impact on its attempts to purchase the tech firm.

Steria will still be in play until the annual meeting today of Sopra, another company that has proposed “a friendly tie-up” with it.

Both Bull and Atos claim that if they were to join forces they would jump towards the top of the leader board of European cloud computing companies.

“Bull Group will strongly benefit from joining Atos, one of the most successful global IT companies, in order to accelerate ‘One Bull’ strategic plan implementation,” claimed Bull CEO Philippe Vannier.

Atos CEO Theirry Breton also welcomed the potential merger.

“I welcome this combination as a major step to anchor our European leadership in cloud, big data and cyber security, toward our 2016 ambition to become a Tier One company the preferred European global IT brand,” claimed Breton.

“Bull’s highly recognised teams in advanced technologies such as high computing power, data analytics management and cyber security ideally complement Atos’ large scale operations,” he added.

Companies Working With UK Public Sector

Each company is largely involved in providing the UK public sector with IT and technology services.

It was announced in February that Atos would be handling the extraction of data for the controversial NHS England care.data scheme.

Meanwhile, Bull is currently contracted to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to provide IT operations and support.

Both companies intend to expand their portfolio within public services as a result of the intended merger.

© 24N.biz