Atos said it would pursue its “friendly” bid for chipmaker Gemalto, despite a rejection of the French technology company’s 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) offer.
The unsolicited bid comes after a difficult period for Franco-Dutch Gemalto, which has lost close to 40 percent of its stock market value over the last twelve months following a string of profits warnings.
Gemalto’s SIM cards have equipped millions of phones, but it has been moving away from this slowing business, trying to grab a share of fast-growing cybersecurity instead.
Gemalto has developed electronic passports with biometric features that are used by 30 countries. It has also developed software for digital banking and data encryption for companies.
Its customers include U.S. telecom operator Verizon and online retailers Amazon and Alibaba.
