IT services company Atos has acquired a 50 per cent stake in MSL Group following a 20-year working relationship between the two businesses.

IT services company Atos has acquired a 50 per cent stake in MSL Group following a 20-year working relationship between the two businesses.
 
Atos, which provides products and services for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is the lead IT provider for the London 2012 Games, is headquartered in France and has three UK offices in London.
 
The two companies originally paired up for the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics. MSL Group’s services include real-time results and information systems for sports events.
 
In combining, the companies will provide IT and data services for timing and scoring, information for the media, TV graphics, games management and system integration.
 
Patrick Adiba, chief executive officer for Iberia, Olympics and major events at Atos, comments: ‘Today’s announcement marks a major milestone in our strategy to be the global IT leader for major events.
 
‘By joining forces with MSL Group, we have a strengthened portfolio that will ensure our business technologists can continue to write history for sporting and major events around the world and that as a business we increase our market share as well as value from each deal.’
 
Under the terms of the deal, which has been made for an undisclosed amount, Atos retains the right to acquire the full amount of MSL Group.
 
Jose Alberto Jaen, founder of MSL Group, adds: ‘Our experience and expertise is extremely complementary, we will have the opportunity to support some of the biggest sporting events in the world.’
 
Atos announced in December that it was planning to ban internal email correspondence between staff members by 2014 to ‘improve productivity’.
 
Instead staff will use social networking platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to communicate.