Beratung. The United States became a primary target for the company's expansion with the acquisition of a company that was renamed Altran Corporation. Altran began building its operations in South America as well, especially in Brazil. By the end of 2001, Altran's revenues had jumped to more than 1.2 billion euros, while its ranks of consultants now topped 15,000. Altran become involved in a couple of new PR initiatives at the beginning of the decade, including a partnership with the Renault F1 racing team and a commitment to the Solar Impulse project with the goal of circumnavigating the Earth powered by only solar power. In 2002, Askon Beratung was spun off from Askon consulting as a separate, independently operating company within Altran, and the company's Swiss network had added a new component with the purchase of Sigma. This year a full-scale entry into the United States was made. After providing $56 million to back a management buyout of the European, Asian, and Latin American operations of bankrupt Arthur D. Little (the US-based consulting firm founded in 1886), Altran itself acquired the Arthur D. Little brand and trademark. This acquisition was seen as an important step in achieving the company's next growth target. Sales grew to 2 billion euros by 2003 and the company had more than 40,000 engineers by 2005. In 2004, Altran established operations in Asia and created Altran Pr[i]me, a consulting outfit specialized in large-scale innovation projects. On 29 December 2006, all subsidiaries based in Ile de France were merged under the name of Altran Technologies SA, a technology consultant, which was organized into four business lines (as well as brand names): Altran TEM: Telecommunications, Electronics and Multimedia. Altran AIT: Automobiles, Infrastructure and Transportation. Altran Eilis: Energy, Industry and Life Science. Altran ASD: Aeronautics, Space and Defence. In 2009, Altran launched its Altran Research program to reinforce its position as a leading innovation consultancy. The program is centered around three main themes: designing tools that can guarantee long-lasting solutions, innovative research and proof-of-concepts, and research on how to organize and improve innovative practices. In 2012, as part its Performance Plan 2012, PSA Peugeot Citroën chose Altran as its strategic partner. In early 2013, Altran group finalised the acquisition of 100% of IndustrieHansa, an engineering and consulting group based in Germany, placing it among the top five in the market of Technical Consultancy, Innovation, Research and Development. In June