IBM Corp and AT&T Corp were both reported to be interested in the French software and computer services company Generale de Service en Informatique SA, GSI, back in June (CI No 2,676) but Roseland, New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing Inc has beaten them both to it. GSI, based in Paris, is the former computer services arm of what is now Alcatel Alsthom SA, and was spun out in a management buyout way back in 1987 (CI No 818). It has survived as an independent company much longer than anyone forecast at the time, but management problems and poor performance over the past year meant that its time was running out. The big Roseland bureau operator is paying about $460m in cash for GSI, which is doing something over $400m a year; it offers payroll and personnel bureau services, facilities management, banking, clearing and other information services, primarily in France and Germany.
