Atos Selling Italy IT Services Operations to Lutech -

Global IT consulting firm Atos is negotiating to sell its Italian operations to Lutech, an Italian provider of IT services and solutions. Lutech is backed by Apax Partners -- a private equity firm that frequently acquires MSP, MSSP and IT consulting businesses.

This is M&A deal number 998 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.

The Atos Italy-Lutech deal is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2023, the firms said. The proposed deal does not include the Atos EuroHPC business in Italy; Atos will retain that business.

Atos Business Evolution

Atos in mid-2022 announced a CEO exit and breakup plan that will reorganize the company into two publicly held businesses.

Rumors about a possible Atos company breakup or asset sales have swirled on and off for more than a year — even as Atos continued to acquire IT consulting firms focused on Salesforce, Snowflake, ServiceNow, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure.

In a prepared statement about the negotiations with Lutech, Atos Group Senior Executive VP Diane Galbe said:

“This additional transaction will enable us to secure 2/3^rd of our €700 million divestment program which is well under way. It demonstrates our ability to deliver on our commitments and to execute our transformation plan in a swift and efficient manner. The combined entity, as a leader in the Italian market, would offer strong opportunities to our Italian teams, with Atos Italia remaining a key partner of the Group for global operations and the EuroHPC contracts retained by the Atos Group.”

Apax Partners: MSP Acquisition Experience

Lutech owner Apax Partners has a lengthy track record investing in and/or acquiring MSPs, managed security services providers (MSSPs), telecom companies and cybersecurity businesses.

Example Apax Partners M&A deals from 2021 included:

Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus acquired T-Mobile Netherlands.
Apax acquired Infogain, a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP.
Cloud security company Coalfire, backed by Apax, acquired penetration testing and cybersecurity firm Neuralys.
Apax acquired Lutech.
Global software consultancy ThoughtWorks, backed by Apax, acquired IT consulting firm Fourkind.
Apax acquired Herjavec Group, the Top 250 MSSP led by Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec.

Apax has a major war chest for continued acquisitions. The private equity firm raised $1.75 billion in 2021 for the Apax Digital Fund II (also known as ADF II).