The Information revealed Monday how Microsoft had a “secret ally” — Oracle — to help land the coveted Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, a $10 billion Pentagon project that was expected by many to go to Amazon but was awarded to Microsoft.
- Microsoft and Oracle — which have had a complicated relationship over the years — began working together in April 2018 to help persuade the Defense Department not to award JEDI to Amazon.
- Lobbyists for both companies wanted the Pentagon to break the contract into pieces; Amazon was seen as a favorite to win the deal. Though Microsoft stopped that argument once the DoD decided that only one company would win the contract.
- Amazon, the Defense Department, and Microsoft are now locked in litigation over the contract award, with Amazon claiming the outcome was unfair and biased. Amazon and Microsoft executives sparred in blog posts last week, each accusing the other of bending the truth.
