Both IBM Corp and AT&T Corp have very seriously approached executives at French systems integrator Generale de Services en Informatique SA, GSI, with competing acquisition offers, despite GSI reporting Tuesday its first-ever losses incurred last year, reported Le Monde. The Paris daily theorises that, although the legal structure of GSI prohibits any hostile takeover, Banque Paribas, which unexpectedly acquired 6% of the company in April, could exercise friendly pressure on GSI management to accept an offer it found attractive. It’s unclear just how much pressure Paribas could exert on GSI, since president Jacques Raiman expressed consternation that Paribas was able to buy the shares, but it is certain that GSI is more vulnerable today than it has ever been. The company reported Tuesday that its 1994 revenues grew 2% at a constant rate of exchange, but only 0.7% otherwise, to the equivalent of $524m from some $520m. The decline was due to price pressure from the competition, notably in the areas of payroll and personnel systems and a delay in the launch of some software products, the company said. For the first time, it reported a net loss, of some $5.8m, as a result of allocation of some $16.3m in restructuring costs. Furthermore, Le Monde notes that GSI’s management team, which has always been solid, has lost its cohesion. Last April, president Jacques Bentz resigned, following the resignations of five executives at the first of the year. All of the departing execs apparently opposed M Raiman on the question of accepting outside partners into the group. The paper says IBM was interested in buying GSI three years ago before it bought Axone SA and that AT&T is trying to strengthen its expertise in software and services. IBM France delivered a no comment and a staffer in the press office at AT&T-NCR characterised the story as bizarre. In any case, GSI said Tuesday that its prospects for 1995 are rosier than last year. Based on results from the first five months of the year and an increase in orders at the end of 1994, the company expects net profit of some $16m, and to see significant growth.
