28/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - Mergers: Atos Origin acquires SIS (Siemens). On Friday 25 March, the European Commission authorised the French IT services company Atos Origin (handling payment card transactions) to acquire the German company Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS, Siemens Group), which provides a full range of IT services, sectorial IT solutions and IT advisory and systems integration services to Siemens and its subsidiaries, and to external clients. The Commission authorised the operation, noting that it would not raise competition problems, as the parties hold a cumulative market share of around just 5% on the global professional IT services market in the European Economic Area and are not generally present in the same countries. Atos Origin will also continue to face strong, effective competition. (F.G./transl.fl)