Amazon files a lawsuit against Pentagon’s decision of awarding JEDI to Microsoft Corp.

The U.S. Department of Defense had announced in October that Pentagon has chosen Microsoft Corp. to award its cloud computing contract that was valued at $10 billion. Following Pentagon’s announcement, the staunch competitor and fellow bidder for the contract, Amazon Inc. was reported to have expressed disappointment in the decision. Amazon representative had also highlighted previously that the online retail giant plans on challenging the U.S Defense Department’s decision.

Amazon Filed Lawsuit In The U.S Court Of Federal Claims

As of Friday, CEO Jeff Bezos has approached a federal U.S court to file a lawsuit against Pentagon’s earlier decision. Amazon Web Services official has divulged that the U.S Court of Federal Claims received Amazon’s complaint under seal. The official, however, refrained from providing further information regarding the basis of the supplemental motion.

As per the sources, Amazon is after a protective order and commented in its court document that the filing comprises confidential financial information including trade secrets and proprietary information.

Following Amazon’s earlier announcement that it will challenge Pentagon’s decision of granting the project to Microsoft Corp., Mark Esper, U.S Defense Secretary, had responded with a statement that all accusations of bias in Pentagon’s decision are entirely pointless.

Microsoft Is Confident Of Its Victory Against Amazon

While Microsoft supported the right for Amazon to legally challenge the decision, it also expressed confidence in its victory and remarked that revisiting the decision will present the same fact that Microsoft is the best-suited candidate for Pentagon’s requirements regarding its cloud computing contract. It further added that the details will make it clearer that the Department of Defense used a fair process to award the contract worth $10 billion to Microsoft.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract of the U.S Department of Defense is a component of Pentagon’s newly instigated interest in digital modernization of the processes. Amazon had managed to quickly secure a reputation as the favorite during the contract’s bidding phase. The final decision in favor of Microsoft, however, came as a surprise to the company itself as well as for the experts.

Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, who also owns Washington Post, cited politics for the online retail giant to have lost the contract despite being the best suited candidate for the project. Bezos is widely known as a prominent critic of President Trump.

The stock market didn’t respond lucratively to Amazon’s announcement on Friday. The stock opened at $1,740 on Friday. Printing a daily low of $1,733, it closed the week at around 1,746. Share prices were reported to have remained flat in the after-hours trading on Friday.