Bell Atlantic Corp has handed its 49% stake in the European end of its Sorbus third party maintenance business to its partner in the venture, ICL Plc, in return for an undisclosed share of future profits. The move strongly suggests that the $500m North American end of the Bell Atlantic business is on the block as well, although the company hotly denies it. ICL has merged the business with its ICL Customer Service to create a ú500m-a-year maintenance business. ICL says the merger will bring it closer to its goal of becoming Europe’s dominant multi-vendor service supplier – it is currently number four in Europe – and it looks for turnover to grow to more than ú1,000m within the next five years. International service contracts extending beyond Europe will be handled by Bell Atlantic Business Systems and Fujitsu Ltd. ICL Sorbus will employ 5,000 people in 15 countries and there are no plans for mass redundancies. ICL bought 50% of the Bell Atlantic business in 1991 (CI No 1,725); the unit started out as part of Cable & Wireless Plc before being bought and expanded by Bell Northern Research and ultimately sold to Bell Atlantic.
