Amazon to Protest Pentagon Contract Award to Microsoft

By John D. McKinnon 

WASHINGTON -- Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday it would protest the Pentagon's award of a massive cloud-computing contract to Microsoft Corp. in October, throwing yet another wrench in the long-running procurement battle.

Amazon had long been the favorite to win the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract, which is valued at up to $10 billion over the next decade. The Department of Defense investigated and cleared Amazon of conflict-of-interest allegations, but nonetheless ruled in the end that Microsoft was more qualified for the job.

The company's cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, said in a statement that it was "uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology the U.S. military needs."

"Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias, and it's important that these matters be examined and rectified," AWS said in the statement.

The Pentagon and Microsoft couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Write to John D. McKinnon at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2019 17:23 ET (22:23 GMT)

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