European Commission clears Atos bid for Siemens IT

The European Commission has cleared the proposed €850m acquisition of Siemens' IT Solutions and Service (SIS) by French IT service provider Atos Origin.

The commission found that the two companies, with combined sales of around €8.7bn and 78,500 employees worldwide, held a combined 5% of the IT professional services market in Europe, and did not usually compete in the same country.

It said Atos Origin will still face strong competitors with big market shares as well as new competitors from emerging countries. In addition its customers were largely sophisticated buyers with plenty of buyer power. "Therefore, the commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," it said.

Atos Origin said it expected to complete the deal by July 2011, subject to the usual conditions and approval of Atos shareholders.