Atos contemplates fire sale as break-up plan falters

There are two vacant seats on the board, Atos also revealed Wednesday, as it announced the resignation of four of its 11 members and the appointment of only two replacements. It also announced the replacement of the staff representative on the board as the previous representative’s term of office had expired. Two other board members, including chairman Bertrand Meunier, stepped down in 2023.

In addition to the revolving cast in the board room, Atos has seen a succession of CEOs over the last few years. Long-standing CEO Thierry Breton left the company in 2019 to become France’s European Commissioner. He was replaced by then-CFO Elie Girard, who lasted until December 2022. His successor, Rodolphe Belmer was replaced after just seven months by Nourdine Bihmane.

Belmer’s departure followed a bitter dispute with activist shareholders, who unsuccessfully tried to appoint former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker, who spent an ill-fated year as head of HP, to the board.

Bihmane lasted three months in the top job before returning to his role as CEO of the future spin-off, Tech Foundations, making way in October 2023 for former Accenture executive Yves Bernaert to take over as CEO of Atos.

These are not the only changes at the top: CFO Saleh joined the company in August 2023, and board member Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, a former Google executive, took over as Atos’ group general manager in December 2023.

With so much churn at the top, it’s little wonder Atos is struggling to make progress with its break-up.

The IBM/Kyndryl example

The financial success of Kyndryl’s split from IBM may be another factor weighing against Atos. Since the two companies’ separation in November 2021, IBM’s stock price has steadily risen by around $40, while Kyndryl’s has halved, from around $40 to $20, making legacy infrastructure management look like an unattractive investment.  

Going its own way was supposed to enable Kyndryl to return to growth by exploring new and more profitable revenue streams. Two years on it continues to report year-over-year declines in revenue, although its losses are shrinking, too.

Nevertheless, Kyndryl is steadily transforming its business, multiplying its industry partnerships and expanding into the monitoring and management of more modern infrastructure with services such as its open integration platform, Kyndryl Bridge.

If Atos succeeds with its break-up plan, then Kyndryl’s experience suggests the work for internal IT staff at Tech Foundations will be only the beginning. Kyndryl CIO Michael Bradshaw spent the first two years following the split rebuilding the company’s ERP and HR platforms to function without IBM infrastructure, even as he reshaped systems to support the company’s new activity.