Atos Group announced its third quarter 2025 results on Monday, highlighting the scale of the challenges facing the French IT services provider. Revenues amounted to around €1.977 billion, down 10.5 per cent on an organic basis compared to the same period a year earlier.
The decline is mainly behind Atos’ decision to withdraw from low-margin or strategically irrelevant contracts – particularly in the US and UK – and the difficult market situation. The Strategic Business Unit (SBU) recorded a drop of as much as 19% in revenue (€1.621 billion), while the unit specialising in high-performance solutions, the Eviden brand, achieved an increase of 77% to €356 million.
Despite the difficulties, Atos has confirmed its targets for 2025 – the company says it will close the year with profitability and positive cash flow. This is important because in 2024 the company was undergoing a deep financial restructuring – debt was reduced by €2.1 billion and banks and bondholders became significant shareholders. This information is beyond the current publication, but provides important context (including the full debt restructuring completed in 2024).
In the announcement, the management signals a turnaround in strategy — from 2026, M&A will be put on hold and the acceleration of M&A activity is postponed until 2027-2028. As Philippe Salle pointed out: the target is companies with revenues in the range of €20-200 million, not ‘very large acquisitions’. This means that Atos is planning a series of small acquisitions to support key areas rather than a spectacular purchase of a single ‘pump’.
From a technological and market perspective, a change of direction could be crucial for Atos. The company remains deeply involved in sectors such as defence and high-performance computing – it is the one that operates the supercomputers used by the French nuclear sector, among others. However, declining revenues in traditional IT outsourcing and challenging markets in the US and UK show that the task of rebuilding its position is significant.
For the IT market, this is a signal: Atos is not simply returning to a growth path, but is rebuilding its business model. The withdrawal from low-margin contracts, cost restructuring and the postponement of M&A activity to future years give the picture of a company that is more defensive than offensive. In the short term, the decline in revenues may be a cause for concern; in the medium term, it is a foundation for stabilisation and rebuilding.
In practice, the key questions are whether Atos’ commercial pipeline is strong enough to resume organic growth in 2026 – as the company claims – and whether its strategy of smaller acquisitions will be overwhelmed by competition from larger integrators. In addition, maintaining profitability while scaling down will test the cost discipline and quality of the contract portfolio.
