Atos Origin, the French IT services provider, today announced that it had agreed to purchase the KPMG Consulting operations in the UK and The Netherlands for Euros 657 million ($610 million). The two units currently employ 2,800 people and enjoy aggregate revenues of Euros 600 million ayear.
After the purchases are completed, the little-known Atos Origin will have 30,000 employees in over 30 countries worldwide, offering business consulting, systems integration and managed services and outsourcing solutions. The transaction, which is still subject to approval by partners and regulators, is further evidence of a post-Enron drive to eliminate conflicts of interest between audit and consulting work.
Atos Origin is a product of the amalgamation of two French IT services companies (Sligos and Axime) with Origin, the computer services arm of Philips Electronics, which remains the largest single shareholder in Atos Origin. The company has annual revenues of more than EUR 3 billion, and employs 27,000. Its clients include ABN-Amro, Alstom, BNP Paribas, Euronext, Fiat, ICI, KPN, Lucent, Philips, Renault, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Unilever, Vivendi Universal and Wolters Kluwer.