France buys nuclear supercomputing spinoff Bull from Atos for €404M

The French government has finally closed a deal to purchase the Advanced Computing assets of tech giant Atos, leading to the re-emergence of an old industry name: Bull.

Atos says it completed the sale of Bull to the French State in a transaction valued at up to €404 million ($468 million).

This is less than the €410 million ($475 million) offered by Paris last year, as it now excludes Atos's zData, a leader in big data consulting and solutions. It is also much less than the €625 million ($724 million) previously floated, owing to the decision by Atos to exclude the Vision AI unit from the transaction.

Atos acquired Bull for €620 million back in 2014, but the French government decided to make an offer for those parts of the business when it appeared they might fall under the control of foreign-owned entities as part of a restructuring process ...