Atos shares soar after Xerox acquisition

Shares in French tech firm Atos soared nearly five percent on Friday as traders cheered the news it had bought the IT wing of Xerox for more than $1 billion.

Atos stock was trading 4.9 percent higher on the main French CAC-40 index at the mid-point of the session.

Chief executive—and former French finance minister—Thierry Breton said the $1.05-billion deal, equivalent to 855 million euros, would give Atos access to the huge US market.

Nathalie de Medina, analyst at Oddo Securities, said that Atos had got a "good price" for the deal, "better than for similar deals in the past."

"It also makes a lot of sense from a strategic point of view by growing their market in the United States which is becoming their biggest market," she added.

Analysts at Aurel BGC said in a note to clients that Atos had "tripled its size in the United States" with the deal.

The deal is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2015 and follows a similar move for French group Bull, the long troubled computer company that was once the pride of France's technology sector.

© 2014 AFP