After recognizing important internal failures, Atos has seen its shares fall by up to 14% in the stock market.
The shares of French IT company Atos have fallen by up to 14% on the stock market after issuing a statement in which it acknowledged accounting failures detected in the internal controls of two of its divisions in the United States.
These represent 11% of the company’s total turnover and more than 8% of its total operating margin. These are Atos IT Solutions and Services and Atos IT Outsourcing Services.
Atos says that these errors will not affect the annual accounts, but has called in external audits to determine the extent of the accounting errors to correct them. These had been detected by the company’s auditors, and focus on failures of internal controls over financial reporting processes and revenue recognition for applicable local regulations.
The impact of these failures has affected the Atos share price on the Paris Stock Exchange, falling from 66.52€ to 52.14€. It represents the most significant drop in its share price since 2018 when it depreciated by 18%. This time it also affects the market value of the company in a relevant way, since it means the loss of 1 billion euros in its market value.
This setback comes on top of the missed opportunity last February when Atos could have bought rival DXC Technology, which would have helped create an IT giant capable of competing more strongly against rivals such as Accenture and SAP.
