French technology consulting firm Atos has made a €4.3bn offer for European digital security company Germalto.
The company said it had submitted an all-cash offer of €46 a share for Gemalto on November 28, which represents a 42 per cent premium to Gemalto’s closing price on December 8.
Thierry Breton, Atos chief executive, said the deal would create a European leader in cyber security technology and strengthen its positioning as a leading European payment services provider.
“Atos has been following closely, and with a lot of interest, the evolution of Gemalto as a leading player in digital cyber security, IoT and payment and has long admired its global presence and strong customer and technology portfolios,” he said.
“We believe that a combination of Atos and Gemalto would result in enhanced global leadership in cybersecurity, digital technologies and services and in the strengthening of our positioning as a leading European payment services provider.”
Breton added he had already received the backing of Gemalto’s biggest shareholder, France’s state-owned investment bank Bpifrance, in a call with reporters. Bpifrance currently holds 8.51 percent of Gemalto’s shares, according to the group’s last annual report.
Gemalto’s technologies and services enable businesses and governments to authenticate identities and protect data so they stay safe and enable services in personal devices, connected objects, the cloud and in between according to its website. The company claims its solutions are at the heart of modern life, from payment to enterprise security and the internet of things.
It recently announced that its Trusted Service Hub (TSH) now enables issuers to connect to the Mastercard and Visa tokenisation services, which will simplify the way financial institutions can launch mobile payment services.
Atos provides cloud services, infrastructure & data management, business & platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, a provider of payments and transactional services. It supports the digital transformation of its clients across various business sectors including defense, financial services, health, manufacturing, media, energy & utilities, public sector, retail, telecommunications and transportation.
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