French company Thales Group takes over chipmaker Gemalto for €4.8 billion
€4.8 billion deal expands company's workforce to 80,000 staff worldwide
Dubai: French aerospace and defense group Thales has completed the takeover of Dutch rival Gemalto, which has offices in the region, including Dubai, for a sum of €4.8 billon (Dh19 billion), it was announced on Tuesday.
The mega deal has expanded Thales' workforce by 15,000 staff and to date, it now employs 80,000 workers in 68 countries.
It is also set to increase the firm’s revenues to €19 billion and self-funded research and development to €1 billion a year.
Thales is headquartered in Paris, France. It had earlier won the contract to provide state-of-the-art, driver-less train signalling technology for the Dubai Metro extension or Route 2020.
The acquisition is expected to boost Thales’ global presence, particularly in the areas of air traffic management, data and network cybsercurity, airportt security and financial transaction security.