The Franco-American group SCHLUMBERGER (turnover of USD 9.6 billion in 2000 with 55,000 people in more than 100 countries) launched a public tender offering for the Franco-British IT services company SEMA GROUP (turnover of EUR 2.3 billion expected for 2000). SCHLUMBERGER is offering 560 Pence per share, valuing the whole company at around GBP 3.6 billion. It already received the assent of the two main shareholders, namely FRANCE TELECOM (16.9%) and BNP PARIBAS (5.1%). With this acquisition, coupled to another operation namely the acquisition of the chip card division BULL CP8 (see EI of 5 January), SCHLUMBERGER, specialised at the outset in the oil services sector, is moving more towards IT services .