1500 GMT - Airbus and Atos were among the most mentioned companies across news items over the past eight hours, according to Factiva data. The companies said Wednesday that they are in talks for a potential deal that would see Airbus acquire Atos's big-data and security business. French IT group Atos said it will open a due diligence phase with Airbus after it received an indicative offer from the European aerospace group that values the business at between 1.5 billion and 1.8 billion euros ($1.64 billion-$1.97 billion), including debt. European defense contractors have shown appetite for acquisitions in recent months. Thales last month closed its purchase of U.S. cybersecurity company Imperva from private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, while Britain's BAE Systems agreed to buy Ball Corp.'s aerospace business in August, the same month in which Germany's Rheinmetall completed its takeover of Spanish ammunition maker Expal Systems. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva. (nina.kienle@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 03, 2024 10:14 ET (15:14 GMT)

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