The French-Dutch IT firm Atos Origin should be taken over by a larger firm, the boss of hedge fund Centaurus says in Monday’s Les Echos newspaper.

‘Atos is a fine company with talented personnel and good clients but strategically it does not stand a chance,’ Bernard Oppetit told the paper. ‘It is too small to be a general firm and not specialised enough to carve out a niche position.’
Centauras and US hedge fund Pardus Capital Management hold over 20% of Atos Origin shares and say they do not rule out trying to take over the company if Atos does not take the wishes of its most important shareholders into account.
Centaurus was earlier instrumental in forcing the break-up of Dutch engineering group Stork.