France-based IT consulting firm Atos disclosed that auditors had found accounting errors at two of the firm’s U.S. units.
The entities affected were Atos IT Solutions and Services Inc., and Atos IT Outsourcing Services LLC, which between them represent about 11 percent of Atos’s consolidated turnover, Atos said in a statement.
Atos said that as part of a regular audit of its accounts, its accountants had identified problems with financial reporting “leading to several accounting errors”.
Atos has hired external firms to investigate whether those errors had let to a material misstatement of financial performance, but said there was not enough time to complete this work before the regular audit was published.
“As of today, the Group has not identified misstatements on the two U.S. entities that are material for the consolidated financial statements,” the company statement said.
“Atos is committed to the highest standards and the Group is strongly enhancing its preventive controls and processes through a comprehensive action plan.”
The French firm said in January it had made an approach to buy U.S. rival DXC Technology in what it called a “friendly transaction”. In February, they decided to end the talks.
JPMorgan analysts wrote in a research note on Wednesday that Atos “dinged investors’ view of its ambitions when it announced that it was looking at a friendly takeover of DXC. Now accounting issues could set the company back a bit further.”
