Xerox has struck a deal to sell its information technology business to France’s Atos for $1.05 billion.
The move is part of a larger transformation led by CEO Ursula Burns. Xerox (XRX), which is best known for its old school printers, is repositioning itself to become a business-to-business expert, focusing on human resources, financial services and data services for multinational firms.
Xerox opted to get out of the IT game, a space that is a core specialty for Atos. Xerox and Atos have a long-established relationship. Xerox provides print, human resources and financial services for Atos, while the French IT company handles the tech infrastructure for Xerox in Europe. The deal now expands the relationship, and Atos will take over even more of Xerox’s IT services.
“We had a lot of success with the IT outsourcing business, but we were subscale versus the larger players,” Robert Zapfel, president of Xerox Services, told the New York Times.
Atos will take on the IT outsourcing business’ 9,800 workers, about 4,500 of which are in the U.S. The deal, which is still subject to regulator and antitrust approvals, is expected to close in the first half of 2015.