Hey Atos, I am disappointed

As an Atos investor you should be disappointed. The good news is that it is probably a temporary feeling; at least that is what I am telling myself every day since Atos announced they will split the company. 

Unfortunately, ‘telling’ is not what Atos is doing; most of the communications is either vague or not telling at all. 

I can obviously deduct information from circumstantial evidence, and being a former employee helps in understanding and interpret these data tidbits. 

So why do I care? The obvious reason is that I hold some Atos shares. I show this in my footnote with every blog posting. But the other reason is curiosity about how this split-up of one of the biggest IT firms in the world, or at least Europe, will play out.  

It has been a nail-biter when you look at the senior leadership’s spectacle of promotions, demotions, new hires, failures, and new names rising to fame. Mix this with a (un)healthy suspicion of political maneuvering and we have gotten ourselves a very wild journey in the past 24 months. 

We saw activist shareholder takeover bids. We have been shown interesting investment plans from allies that are then dropped unexpectedly. And opinions by outsiders that have been both insightful and sometimes unexpectedly missing the point. 

I believe there is enough information and, with some imagination, plenty of boardroom drama to create a European version of Succession when this is all over. 

Nevertheless, the latest quarterly financial information gives us hope that the ship is sailing in the right revenue-direction; once again evidence to support the question if the split of this great company is really necessary. 

There must be people in the boardroom that are also thinking about this, and possibly already putting this on the agenda. I’d love to talk to them and to encourage them to speak up. I found it suspicious that Atos recently announced several changes to the board. Why would you do that if you also announced the company will end in its current form in the next couple of months? My human side, with a need for conspiracy theories, kicked in. 

To be clear, I have no information that would support any such a theory, but I can see why my mind is trying to fill in the blanks. There are so many, and it would serve Atos and my curiosity, if their communications team would be more forthcoming on the ongoing processes. Something more than the boring and not very insightful strategic transformation updates we got at the Q1 2023 results press release please. 

(BTW I know you all work hard and congrats to all employees on the turnaround until now)

Disclaimer: Paul, who is the author of this blog post, holds at time of writing a small amount of stocks in Atos SE. All information in this blog post is believed to be public information, enriched with the authors personal opinion. No confidential information is being shared.