PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus has started exploratory talks to take a minority share in the Evidian cybersecurity unit of IT consultancy group Atos, Les Echos newspaper reported in its Monday issue, citing unnamed sources.
Airbus said in an emailed statement that it would not comment on speculation, adding “we are in constant discussion with our partners, customers and suppliers across the industry, but these conversations remain private in nature.”
Atos said that as part of its strategic plan, “the company had initiated exploratory discussions with potential future minority shareholders in the scope of activities grouped under the name of Evidian.”
Atos last year announced its plan to split into two publicly listed companies by spinning off its cybersecurity operations along with some other units into a unit that is now called Evidian while the remaining part would include its declining IT infrastructure management services.
“These discussions are not sufficiently advanced to allow any further comment”, Atos said.
(Writing by Ingrid Melander and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Bradley Perrett)