“Atos Origin strengthens its Hi-Tech Transaction Services activities”
Acquisition of Shere advances retail offering for rail and hospitality markets in the UK
Atos Origin, an international IT services company, today announced that it is expanding its Hi-Tech Transactional Services through the acquisition of Shere – a market leading and innovative provider of integrated self-service, web and desktop systems delivering services to the UK rail and hospitality markets. This is an important step in Atos Origin’s strategy to increase its revenue from transaction based services through its core expertise in Hi-Tech Transactional Services. 90 Shere employees will transfer to Atos Origin as part of this deal.
Revenue of Shere was £ 11 million in 2009.
“The incorporation of Shere into our Group is a strategic decision and we are committed to ensuring that it delivers the maximum value for us and our clients,” said Gilles Grapinet, Senior Executive Vice President, Atos Origin. “Through the innovative solutions from Shere and our own proven expertise in payments and CRM, we will advance our retailing services to help our clients drive sales and increase revenues, initially in the UK and ultimately globally.”
“Shere is highly compatible with our organization,” said Keith Wilman, UK CEO, Atos Origin. “The acquisition will enable us to provide our UK clients in the rail and hospitality markets with the agile, innovative, pay-per-use retail solutions necessary to meet the increase in demand for internet and self–service retailing solution, which we believe will increase, in rail alone to more than 50% of the sales market over the next 8 years.”
The synergies between the Shere and Atos Origin payment and CRM solutions will provide hospitality and rail providers with the tools to make it easy for their consumers to plan and book travel. Atos Origin’s innovative pay-per-use model will also minimize risk and reduce the need for investment.
“We are delighted to be joining Atos Origin which has an excellent track record and reputation in the rail and hospitality sectors,” said Neil Briscoe, Chairman, Shere. “Our joint expertise will enable our clients to rise to the challenge of cost effective retailing.”
The combined expertise and experience of both companies means that Atos Origin can now extend and strengthen its transaction based services business in the rail and hospitality sectors. It will further build on its AVANTIX WebTIS™ and AVANTIX Mobile™ solutions to provide clients in the rail sector with end-to-end retailing services that span the telephone, ticket office, on-line, selfservice and mobile channels. In the hospitality sector, it will strengthen its business services for loyalty and payments that help its clients increase revenue, while in turn making it easier for their clients to manage travel expenses.
About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is a leading international information technology (IT) services company, providing hitech transactional services, consulting, systems integration and managed operations to deliver business outcomes globally. The company’s annual revenues are EUR 5.1 billion and it employs 50,000 people. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.
About Shere
Since its founding in 1992 the Shere team has been designing, building, installing and maintaining self service and desktop ticketing and fulfilment systems. Shere has developed a unique and proprietary core system framework which supports three front end applications:
SMART™ is the rail desk top ticket and reservation application, FAST™ is the self service kiosk application for rail, and Express Reception™ is the self service kiosk application for hotels. Each application is adapted to suit the precise requirements of the customer.
For more information, contact:
Press:
Marie Tatiana Collombert + 33 1 55 91 26 33
Caroline Crouch +44 20 7 830 4233
Investors:
Gilles Arditti +33 1 55 91 28 83
