Amazon will appeal the Trump administration’s decision to grant a $10 billion defence contract to its rival Microsoft, accusing the US government of having shown “unmistakable bias” in its procurement process. The company said yesterday it was lodging a legal case against the decision, following accusations that Donald Trump manipulated the process to harm Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder. The Pentagon awarded the so-called Jedi cloud computing contract to Microsoft last month after several rounds of bidding, a legal challenge from one of the bidders, and a last-minute intervention by the US president… Four companies originally bid for the contract, which has been bitterly fought over as it would allow one company to handle much of the Pentagon’s data and communication systems. Microsoft and Amazon were the two bidders to be shortlisted, and the path seemed to have been cleared for a final decision earlier this year after judges dismissed a legal challenge from Oracle, one of those not shortlisted. Many had expected Amazon to win the contract, given it is the only company currently able to encrypt data to the “top secret” level the Pentagon requires… Mr Trump has regularly clashed with Mr Bezos, not least over his ownership of the Washington Post newspaper.?

Kiran Stacey