Atos Origin – the IT services company in the news for losing a memory stick containing passwords for a government web site – has reported third-quarter revenue of €1.3bn, representing 5.3 per cent year-on-year growth.

Revenue for the first nine months of the year was up 6.3 per cent to €4.1bn, with the UK business generating double-digit growth.

"During the third quarter we have been able to maintain an organic growth above five per cent as planned," said Atos Origin chief executive Philippe Germond.

"Early September we anticipated a possibly more challenging economic environment and we decided to take appropriate actions to further reduce our cost base. For year 2008 we confirm our objective of revenue organic growth above five per cent."

IDC analyst Laura Converso suggested that Atos was late to increase its use of offshore capacity.

"The current economic turmoil brings new opportunities to the vendors with the lowest-cost locations, with strong brands and strong balance sheets," she said.

"Even if Atos continues to cut costs, and it has recently launched actions in this direction, most of its peers are already much ahead in terms of offshore capacities and will play this card to steal market share from other vendors at a time when we expect a very tough 2009 in the IT services market."