Amazon.com had accused then-President Donald Trump, alleging
that the former president exerted improper pressure on military officials to
steer the contract away from Amazon. The Pentagon said on Tuesday it expected
the new multi-billion dollar contract would be split between Amazon and
Microsoft.
Amazon did not object to dismissing its 2019 lawsuit.
Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith of the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims agreed to dismiss the lawsuit at the government's request,
saying the case was now moot.
Trump publicly derided then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and
repeatedly criticized the company. Amazon had sought to question Trump about
his role in the contract decision.
The Pentagon hopes to have the first awards by April 2022
for its new Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC).
John Sherman, acting chief information officer for the
Defense Department, said on Tuesday he expects both Microsoft and Amazon will
get cloud contracts.
Microsoft said in a statement that the company was confident
it will "continue to be successful as the DoD selects partners for new
work."
Amazon's Amazon Web Services cloud unit said it agreed with
the Pentagon's decision to cancel the contract. It said the initial award was
"not based on the merits of the proposals and instead was the result of
outside influence that has no place in government procurement."
In April, Campbell-Smith refused to dismiss Amazon's claims
alleging the Trump administration interfered in the Pentagon's award to
Microsoft after putting it on hold indefinitely in February 2020.
The now-canceled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure
Cloud (JEDI) contract was budgeted for as much as $10 billion and was part of a
broader digital modernization of the Pentagon aimed at making it more
technologically agile. -Reuters
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