Transaction Network Services (TNS), the Dublin-based marketing centre of the US technology group, has announced it is acquiring a $1.8 million (£1.26 million) 50 per cent interest in Atos Ireland.

Atos is a partly-owned subsidiary of French computer services company Atos Group. TNS, which is building a trans-border card authorisation network for the electronics payments industry in Europe, set up in Ireland in July, 1996. The joint venture will be known as Transwitch.