Atos unveils £720m Siemens IT arm deal

Atos Origin is buying Siemens' IT division for €850 million (£720m) in a move that is expected to create "a European IT champion".

Under the terms of the deal, which was announced late on Tuesday night, Siemens will take a 15 per cent stake in Atos for at least five years and has awarded the new firm a seven-year IT outsourcing contract worth about €5.5 billion.

The combined company will have 2010 revenues of about €8.7bn and 78,500 employees worldwide, although about 1,750 Siemens posts are expected to be made redundant.

German conglomerate Siemens is part of the consortium building the Edinburgh tram network, while French firm Atos has a strong presence in Scotland, having won IT outsourcing contracts with Scottish Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland.