Last week, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) announced that Microsoft had been awarded a contract for the JEDI project. Before the announcement, it was thought that Amazon was most likely to get the contract, and now experts believe that Amazon could contest the decision in order to show that it’s serious about government contracts.
According to Reuters, an insider with knowledge on the matter revealed that Amazon is looking into launching a protest against the decision – this revelation comes just days after it announced that it was surprised about the decision to award the contract to Microsoft.
Supposing that Amazon does go down this route, it has three days to get a debriefing where it will find out why it was unsuccessful and receive information about the evaluation process. Following that, the debriefing may be extended a few more days if the DoD allows additional questions from the firm. If Amazon is still unhappy, it can file a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) within five days.
Depending on the GAO's response, Amazon can ramp things up further by going to the Court of Federal Claims. According to an attorney that Reuters spoke to, the GAO would have 100 days, or just over three months, to make a decision. During that time, Amazon gets an “automatic stay of performance”.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming days. Until the summer, Amazon was the front runner for the JEDI contract, but has since had its bid publicly ridiculed by U.S. President Donald Trump after his administration received complaints from other firms.
Following the announcement last week, Amazon’s share price fell from $1,780 to $1,696 but has since recovered to $1,777. When trading opened today, Amazon’s share price was at $1,749 and has risen quite a bit over the past few hours, likely on the news that it’s planning to challenge the government.
Source: Reuters
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