Why France’s Onetime $15 Billion Tech Champion Needs State Aid
- Atos gets €50 million in interim state funding amid debt woes
- Aid for the ailing strategic company is a black eye for France
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Flush with cash and riding a $15 billion market value in 2017, Atos SE seemed to be bidding for anything and everything it could.
The IT company, through a series of high-profile acquisitions, looked poised to become a rare European tech champion. Current European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who led Atos at the time, boasted about a strong balance sheet and celebrated how he’d navigated all those mergers and acquisitions with no debt.