Orange buys Thales, CDC's stakes in Cloudwatt JV

[March 20, 2015] PARIS (Reuters) - French telecoms groups Orange said on Friday that it was buying shares held by French defense group Thales and the CDC state-backed lender in its cloud computing joint venture Cloudwatt.

With support from the French state, the company was launched in 2012 to provide an alternative to big U.S. companies dominating the sector but it has struggled to take off.

"The technologies and services offered by Cloudwatt complement Orange's own portfolio and represent an opportunity to accelerate the deployment of a sovereign public cloud both in France and in Europe," Orange said in a statement.

Orange said it was buying Thales' 22.2 percent stake and the CDC's 33.3 percent stake as well as taking on all of Cloudwatt's employees. Orange did not provide financial details.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Ingrid Melander)

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