President Donald Trump met with Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of MicroSFT, and Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, during a roundtable discussion of the American Technology Council on June 19, 2017 at the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington.
Jabin Botsford | W. Washington Post | Getty Images
The Pentagon said Friday it would stick with MicroSt.
The JEDI, or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, deal has become one of the most hotly contested agreements for the Department of Defense. The agreement aims to modernize the Pentagon’s formidable IT infrastructure and could be valued at up to 10 10 billion for 10 years of service.
The Pentagon said in a statement that “the department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of JEDI Cloud proposals and determined that the MicroFT proposal continues to represent the best value to the government,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The JEDI Cloud Agreement is a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity agreement that will make the full range of cloud computing services available to the DOD. Through the Federal Claims of the Court on a daily basis, DOD is keen to begin delivering this capability to our men and women in uniform. “
During the trading session on Friday, shares of MicroStreft moved on the news.
The result represents a loss for Amazon, challenging the award of the deal after the Pentagon handed over the Microsoft to Microsoft in October. Representatives from Amazon and MicroSt. Did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In November, Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court against the JEDI’s decision, arguing that President Donald Trump’s bias against Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, was to tax the Pentagon. In the midst of a legal battle, the Pentagon invited Amazon and Micros.ft to revise and resubmit their proposals for the agreement. A Justice Department representative was not immediately available for comment following the Pentagon’s statement.
Today’s decision could lead to more legal disputes.
The for-profit deal, originally offered in September 2018, will launch an investigation after Trump said he was seriously considering reviewing the JDI deal last year.
“I never had anything like that,” Trump told reporters at the White House in July 2019. “Some of the world’s greatest companies are complaining about it.” He added, “IBM, Micro .ft and Oracle were named. The White House declined to comment.”
A book charting the tenure of then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis at the Pentagon claimed that the president had told Mattis to “screw ka told Amazon” from the agreement.
The billionaire executive who owns the Washington Post has become a constant source of frustration for Trump. The president regularly criticizes the publication for its administration coverage. Trump has also repeatedly gone for Amazon, as he claims, will not pay his fair share and the U.S. Rips off post office fees.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s inspector general released a report saying the award did not appear to be influenced by the White House.
However, the inspector general noted in his April 31, 31-page report that there was limited cooperation from White House officials during his review and, as a result, could not complete an assessment of allegations of moral misconduct.
read more: The Pentagon’s Watchdog says the White House does not affect Amazon’s decision to reject the $ 10 billion cloud deal.
At the time, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver told CNBC in a statement that the inspector general’s report confirmed that the Pentagon’s JEDI cloud acquisition process was “fair and in accordance with the law.”
An AWS spokesman suggested at the time that the report did not cover all that.
The spokesman wrote in an emailed statement to CNBC: “It is clear that this report failed to assess political interference, as many DOD witnesses were instructed by the White House not to respond to IG’s questions about communication between White House and DOD officials. ” “The White House’s refusal to cooperate with the IG’s investigation is another reprehensible attempt to avoid a meaningful and transparent review of the Jedi Agreement award,” the person added.
In December, Amazon’s AWS chief Andy J. Assy CA told CNBC that the cloud deal had not been properly justified.
“You know, there was significant political interference here,” JJ said of the JEDI award.
“When you have a sitting president who is very willing to make a noise that he dislikes a company and its CEO, it makes it difficult for government agencies, including the DOD, to make objective decisions without fear of change. And I think that’s dangerous. .And is dangerous for our country, “he told CNBC’s John Fort.
This story is evolving. Please check back for updates.
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