Sponsor Spotlight -- Atos Grows IT Department in United States

(ATR) Also: McDonald's locations in Japan rationing French fries; Spanish Olympic Committee uniform supplier.

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An employee passes the Atos logo as it sits on a sign at the computer-services company's innovation center inside the Atos headquarters in Bezons, France, on Friday, June 13, 2014. Atos is divesting the payments unit Worldline to focus on areas such as cloud computing, or technology that allows data to be accessed remotely via the Web. Photographer: Arnaud Fevrier/Bloomberg via Getty Images
An employee passes the Atos logo as it sits on a sign at the computer-services company's innovation center inside the Atos headquarters in Bezons, France, on Friday, June 13, 2014. Atos is divesting the payments unit Worldline to focus on areas such as cloud computing, or technology that allows data to be accessed remotely via the Web. Photographer: Arnaud Fevrier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(ATR) Atos has added 9,800 employees in information technology from Xerox.

Atos and Xerox have entered into a partnership where Atos receives Xerox’s global IT department in exchange for Atos providing IT services to Xerox.

The deal is worth $950 million, and will be finalized in the second quarter of 2015.

Of the 9,800 employees changing companies, 4,500 are located in the United States, which triples the size of Atos in the country.

"This intended transaction would allow us to strengthen our footprint in the US market which is an early adopter of high growth innovative technologies and to access a pool of talented and highly skilled technologists," Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of Atos, said in a statement.

"The two companies already have a successful long-standing commercial relationship. The strategic collaboration that we set up today makes me very confident in the value creation for our customers and shareholders."

Xerox, a former IOC TOP Sponsor, is reported to triple its U.S. revenue from the deal according to a release from Atos.

French Fry Ration

McDonald’s locations in Japan began limiting the sales of french fries due to a shortage.

Locations began limiting servings of fries to small size on Dec. 17. The shortage is due to a dockworker dispute on the west coast of the United States, according to the New York Times.

Japan, the second largest market for McDonald's, is suffering its second setback of 2014. In the summer, Japanese locations needed to recall Chicken McNuggets due to a tainted batch from their supplier in China.

To deal with the shortage, McDonald’s has airlifted 1,000 tons and will use east coast ports to ship frozen fries until the dispute is resolved.

SpanishAthletes Get New Uniforms

Spanish athletes will be outfitted by JOMA for the 2015 European Games and the 2020 Olympics.

According to a release from the Spanish Olympic Committee, JOMA will produce an athletic line with the NOC's logo in Spain.

Written by Aaron Bauer

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.

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