NEWS | Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Atlas never spoke to us – Claudio Grech

Atlas Technology Group, a software applications company that had set up a support centre in Malta two years ago, recently abandoned its plans to pursue an expansion exercise in Malta after publicly declaring it would set up shop at SmartCity, where 600 people would be employed. The small-scale office it ran in Gzira until recent weeks has in fact been relocated to North America.
But SmartCity dismissed this incident as non-controversial since Atlas Technology Group’s prospective tenancy was “unknown” to them.
At a 2006 press conference hosted by IT Minister Austin Gatt and former Head of Secretariat Claudio Grech, now CEO at SmartCity, Atlas Technology Group Executive Chairman Robert Atlinger had said that the company had already invested Lm1.2 million in Malta to set up the venture. He also said Atlas was: “one of the first ICT corporations to publicly declare our intention to be tenants in Smart City, where the presence of true state of the art communications infrastructure will give an enormous positive boost to our business.”
But as Gatt kept reminding the public of this promise in his speeches throughout the following months, Atlas lost interest in this plan since not enough workload was being accumulated during the night for Malta to sustain operations in the US, where they operate in a different time-zone.
Contacted by Business Today, SmartCity CEO Claudio Grech said: “SmartCity has held no discussion with Atlas TG before. Therefore, their move is totally unknown to us. It is regretful that a company is leaving Malta before SmartCity’s support even reached them. However, our sales ramp-up and global strategy is being executed invariably as per the plan.”
Meanwhile, this newspaper learnt that last July Atlas Technology replaced its former chief with a new CEO, Ralph Muse, the main decision maker behind this sudden change in strategy.
When contacted at his Washington office, Muse confirmed that the office had been relocated, but when asked whether he had ever spoken to SmartCity on Atlas’ prospective tenancy there, he said: “I really don’t want to comment.”
Muse, the owner of a consultancy firm specialising in turn-around assignments, is frequently tasked by US companies to act as an interim executive until his clients’ operations are brought back to life.