The report claimed that Siemens would make a decision shortly regarding plans to sell SBS’ operation related services unit to Paris, France-based Atos, and the product related services division to Fujitsu Siemens Computers, with the remaining parts to be retained by Siemens.
Last month, SBS overhauled its top management for the second time in 15 months, and announced plans to cut 2,400 jobs over the next two years. The Munich-based company, which ranks as Europe’s fifth largest indigenous IT services vendor, has consistently been one of the biggest under-performers within the Siemens empire, struggling to make a profit despite winning a string of high-profile infrastructure outsourcing deals in recent years.
If true, the report indicates that Atos is no longer interested in a business combination with SBS’s domestic rival T-Systems. Atos and T-Systems are widely believed to have been in talks in September, but it would seem that the Deutsche Telekom unit could only now pursue Atos in a hostile bid. Because one of Atos’s attractions is its management team, which has excellent merger integration experience, this would seem an unlikely scenario.
