ORCL - Oracle Corporation
| Previous close | 57.54 |
| Open | 57.88 |
| Bid | 57.36 x 1300 |
| Ask | 58.44 x 2900 |
| Day's range | 57.55 - 58.08 |
| 52-week range | 42.40 - 60.50 |
| Volume | 7,834,618 |
| Avg. volume | 14,315,753 |
| Market cap | 192.143B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.15 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 19.39 |
| EPS (TTM) | 2.97 |
| Earnings date | 16 Sep 2019 - 20 Sep 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.96 (1.67%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-07-16 |
| 1y target est | 56.35 |
- Yahoo Finance•17 hours ago
What is Project JEDI? Amazon and Microsoft are competing for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud program
The Pentagon is preparing to award Amazon or Microsoft a $10 billion contract. But what is Project JEDI?
- Bloomberg•2 hours ago
Facebook, Amazon Set Lobbying Records as Tech Scrutiny Grows
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. set records for lobbying in the second quarter as Washington ramped up scrutiny of big technology companies, while Google’s spending dipped as it continued to reshuffle its influence operations.The world’s largest social media site spent more than $4.1 million on lobbying, the most among big internet platforms, an increase from its previous high in the same period a year earlier.Facebook disclosed lobbying around blockchain, the technology that underlies cryptocurrencies. The company has been trying to win support for its Libra cryptocurrency, which drew skepticism from President Donald Trump, congressional Democrats and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and took a beating from lawmakers in both houses of Congress during two days of hearings last week.The company was also in the final stages of settling an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into privacy violations in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The FTC has voted to fine the company $5 billion and is expected to announce the final details of the settlement within days.For more: Facebook $5 Billion U.S. Privacy Settlement Approved by FTCAmazon spent more than $4 million on lobbying, topping a quarterly record in the first three months of the year, according to disclosures filed with Congress before Monday’s midnight deadline. Amazon, which runs a broad lobbying operation on a diverse range of issues, is closing in on a $10 billion cloud services contract that the Pentagon is poised to award to a single bidder next month.Last week, Trump criticized Amazon as the perceived front-runner for the contract, saying companies such as Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp. had complained that the process was unfair. Oracle has led a sustained lobbying campaign against the department’s plans to award the project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, to a single bidder.In June, Amazon hired Jeff Miller, who bundled $1 million for Trump’s 2016 campaign, to lobby for its cloud computing division on issues related to “cyber security and technology services,” the filings show.On July 18, Trump said he would look “very seriously” at the bid.Oracle spent almost $1.7 million during the quarter, when it said it lobbied on issues including cloud and government IT procurement. It also lobbied the White House and the office of Vice President Mike Pence, the disclosures show. Microsoft Corp., which is the last remaining cloud provider that’s vying with Amazon for the contract, spent $2.7 million in the quarter, while International Business Machines Corp., which was eliminated as a competitor along with Oracle in April, spent $1.6 million, including lobbying on JEDI, the filings show.Antitrust ScrutinyThe big internet companies are coming under growing antitrust pressure as the U.S. moves toward investigating whether their conduct squelches competition. The Justice Department and the FTC, which share antitrust jurisdiction, have carved up responsibility for oversight, with the FTC taking responsibility for Facebook and Amazon and the department’s antitrust division claiming Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc.Facebook and Amazon also underwent a series of hearings by a House committee conducting a broad antitrust investigation of technology companies, drawing ire from lawmakers during the latest hearing earlier this month.Google ended its relationships with at least 17 lobbyists at six outside lobbying firms as global policy chief, Karan Bhatia, reorganizes the search engine’s approach. Google’s second-quarter spending dipped to $3.1 million, a decrease of about half what it spent in the same period a year earlier, the filings showed.Among the top-level exits were Robert Raben of the Raben Group, who served as assistant attorney general of the Justice Department under former President Bill Clinton. It also ended its relationship with Tom Ingram, a former staff director of the Senate Republican Conference. Susan Molinari, the company’s longtime Washington director and a former Republican member of Congress, moved to an advisory position at the end of 2018.Apple, which is grappling with stepped-up antitrust scrutiny as well as concerns about trade, disclosed spending of $1.8 million in the second quarter, up slightly from $1.7 million a year earlier.Trade LobbyingTrump’s threats to impose additional tariffs on imports from China and Mexico during the quarter, as well as a push to ratify a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, contributed to an increase in trade lobbying by some associations.The Consumer Technology Association, whose members include Apple, Amazon and Facebook, reported spending almost $1.8 million during the second quarter -- up from almost $1.5 million a year earlier and from $1.4 million in the first quarter -- in part because of the tariff threats, spokeswoman Bronwyn Flores said.The group reported lobbying Congress, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department and the White House on matters including the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the China tariffs and duties Trump imposed last year on imports of steel and aluminum.“Over the past year, anti-tariff lobbying has become an increasing focus for our government affairs practice,” Michael Petricone, the group’s senior vice president for government and regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “In addition, this quarter CTA’s marketing and communications team executed a comprehensive media campaign to complement our efforts.”The National Retail Federation, which is helping lead a coalition of trade groups opposed to Trump’s tariffs, showed almost almost $2 million in lobbying spending in the second quarter, up from $1.5 million in the first three months. Trade represented a significant portion of the increase besides health care, taxes and other issues, the group said.Trump threatened tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports in May in response to what he said was Beijing reneging on agreed provisions in a sweeping trade deal the two nations are negotiating. The U.S. has already slapped duties on $250 billion in Chinese goods.Trump put the new tariffs on hold after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in June in Japan -- but not until after executives at hundreds of U.S. companies and trade groups testified at public hearings in Washington, most opposing the duties.The president also threatened duties on imports from Mexico if that country didn’t do more to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S., prompting an outcry from businesses and trade groups. Trump ultimately relented.Proponents of ratifying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace Nafta had hoped to have Congress approve the deal by its August recess, but discussions continue between the administration and congressional Democrats on concerns about provisions regarding pharmaceuticals, the environment, labor and overall enforcement of the pact.\--With assistance from Bill Allison.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks•4 days ago
Is The Cloud Space Headed To The Stratosphere?
Microsoft's strong Q2 earnings, propelled by its cloud segment, is a very positive signal to the rest of the cloud space. It illustrates that demand for cloud technology is still strong.
- Zacks•4 days ago
Is Microsoft a Buy After Solid Q4 Earnings?
Microsoft is set for new heights after a stellar quarter.
- Reuters•4 days ago
Four Republican lawmakers ask Trump to move forward with $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract
Four Republican members of U.S. Congress, including House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mac Thornberry, sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday urging him to move forward with a $10 billion cloud contract with the Defense Department. Trump has said his administration was looking closely at Amazon.com's bid on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract after getting complaints from other tech companies. Oracle Corp had expressed concerns about the award process for the contract, including asking about the role of a former Amazon employee who worked on the project at the Defense Department but then recused himself, then later left the Defense Department and returned to Amazon Web Services.
- Zacks•4 days ago
Oracle (ORCL) Up 2% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Continue?
Oracle (ORCL) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.
- Market Realist•4 days ago
Trump Calls for Revisit of JEDI Contract amid Complaints
On Thursday, in response to a question about the JEDI contract, President Trump said he'd been hearing complaints.
- Bloomberg•4 days ago
Billionaire Premji Helps Create India’s Newest Tech Unicorn
(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Azim Premji has helped create India’s latest tech unicorn: a fast-rising software startup that symbolizes the growing investor interest in the Asian nation’s enterprise technology space.Icertis, which competes with SAP SE and Oracle Corp. to help businesses manage contracts in the cloud, has raised $115 million, propelling it to unicorn status as investors flock to enterprise software makers.The advanced-stage funding round in Bellevue, Washington and Pune, India-based Icertis was co-led by Greycroft Partners LLC and PremjiInvest, the fund managed by the family office of Indian tech billionaire Premji. Existing investors including B Capital Group, Eight Roads Ventures and Cross Creek Advisors participated. With this, Icertis has raised over $211 million.The enterprise software segment is heating up as investors from Tiger Global Management to Sequoia and Accel scour the industry for India’s next startup giants. Many are expected to be business- rather than consumer-focused, as the country’s talent pool shifts from IT outsourcing services for global clients toward designing and providing online software.Icertis said it now helps customers worldwide manage over 5.7 million contracts, from supply chain and procurement deals to employee agreements and nondisclosure pacts, that have a total value of more than $1 trillion.“As contracts get converted from static documents to digital assets for the first time in history, every dollar in or out is governed by a contract, putting them at the heart of every enterprise,” said Samir Bodas, Icertis’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Every global company faces unprecedented global competition and needs software to manage contracts.”Icertis is currently valued at “well north of one billion dollars,” Bodas added. The company will use the additional funding to grow its business, including by expanding sales and marketing. Global compliance demands involving Brexit, tariffs, European data privacy regulations as well as rapid digitization has worked in Icertis’s favor, while technologies like artificial intelligence helped enhance the sophistication of its services.“We have been able to ride the technology wave and assert leadership in the space despite large competitors,” Bodas said, citing consultancies Forrester Research and Gartner.Icertis works on a subscription model, charging customers based on the number of contracts drawn up and tracked using its software. MGI Research forecasts the total spending by companies for such contract management at over $20 billion from 2018 to 2022, with services on the cloud growing around 37% annually over the same period.Founded in 2009 when Bodas and friend Monish Darda began exploring cloud-based applications, Icertis in 2015 homed in on building a contract management platform. Today, more than 600 of its 850 employees are based in Pune, where the product is developed. The startup operates a dozen offices from Sofia to Sydney.(Corrects wording to reflect right definition in fourth-to-last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Saritha Rai in Bangalore at srai33@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•5 days ago
Trump Says He’s Looking ‘Very Seriously’ at Pentagon Cloud Deal
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he’s looking “very seriously” at a cloud-computing contract valued at as much as $10 billion that the Pentagon is likely to award to Amazon.com Inc. next month.“I’m getting tremendous complaints about the contract with the Pentagon and with Amazon,” he told reporters Thursday during a meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the White House.The contract wasn’t competitively bid, Trump said. The Pentagon is holding a competition for the contract, but Trump said that companies are complaining that the terms favor Amazon, the dominant player in cloud computing services. Microsoft Corp. is the only other company that hasn’t been eliminated from consideration.Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Trump recently raised concerns about the contract with aides after learning of correspondence Republican lawmakers have exchanged with the Pentagon and the White House criticizing the bidding process.Some Republicans have alleged that the contract’s terms were crafted from the start to favor Amazon, and that there were conflicts of interest involving the company as the Pentagon considered bids.“I will be asking them to look at it very closely to see what’s going on,” Trump said in apparent reference to the Defense Department, “because I have had very few things where there’s been such complaining. Not only complaining from the media -- or at least asking questions about it from the media -- but complaining from different companies like Microsoft and Oracle and IBM. Great companies are complaining about it.”Some supporters of the Pentagon process pushed back on Trump’s comments. Four House Republicans on the Armed Service Committee, including ranking member Mac Thornberry, wrote a letter to Trump on Thursday saying “it is essential for national security” to move forward with the contract “as quickly as possible.”“Further delays will only damage our security and increase the costs of the contract,” they wrote.Trump and BezosWhile Trump didn’t mention Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by name on Thursday, he has long denounced the billionaire in tweets criticizing him on many fronts -- from the shipping rates his company pays the U.S. Postal Service to his personal ownership of what Trump calls “the Amazon Washington Post.”Oracle Corp. has fought the contract process and has led a fierce lobbying campaign against the Pentagon’s plans to award the project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure or JEDI, to a single bidder. But the company lost a legal challenge last week contesting the terms of the bid and alleging the Pentagon had crafted unfair requirements and that there were conflicts of interest involving Amazon.In April 2018, Oracle’s Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz dined with Trump at the White House and complained that the contract terms seemed designed for Amazon to win, Bloomberg has reported. The final requirements for the contract were released in July of that year.International Business Machines Corp. said in a statement after Trump’s comments that it “has long raised serious concerns about the structure of the JEDI procurement. We continue to believe that the Department of Defense and our men and women in uniform would be best served by a multi-cloud strategy” rather than the Pentagon’s plan for a winner-take-all award.Oracle and Microsoft had no comment on Trump’s remarks.“We are aware of the remarks and have nothing to add at this time,” Elissa Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said in an email.Intervention’s RarePresidents and their advisers often set out their visions for defense spending and technology priorities, and Trump has spoken out on matters from the cost of F-35 fighter jets to paint colors for new Air Force One planes.But it’s rare for a commander-in-chief to intervene in specific Defense Department contract competitions because they are governed by extensive laws and regulations intended to wall off billion-dollar awards from political influence, according to experts on the contracting process.“The system is explicitly set up to prevent political officials from being able to influence the outcome of a contract,” said Stan Soloway, chief executive officer of Celero Strategies LLC. The president “can’t pick winners and losers.”Federal agencies have to clearly outline the requirements and criteria they will use to choose a winning bid. Losing bidders can challenge a decision to the Government Accountability Office or in the Court of Federal Claims, contending that the ground rules set in a solicitation weren’t followed. Oracle already has lost a court case challenging the handling of the JEDI contract.But a president has more freedom to exert influence over a project’s structure and acquisition strategy, which could effectively help some companies and hurt others, said Trey Hodgkins, the chief executive officer and founder of Hodgkins Consulting.“He can shine a spotlight on the process and ask the question: Is this the best option for the warfighter? Is this the best deal for the taxpayer?” Hodgkins said. “I don’t know that it would be politically prudent to ignore executive-level scrutiny of the decision making process.”(Updates with lawmakers’ letter starting in seventh paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Naomi Nix in Washington at nnix1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, ;Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters•5 days ago
Trump says looking closely at Amazon's bid on $10 billion Pentagon contract
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration was looking closely at Amazon.com's bid on a $10 billion (£7.97 billion) cloud contract with the Defense Department after getting complaints from other tech companies. Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp were selected in April to continue competing for the Pentagon cloud computing services that is part of a broad modernization of Pentagon information technology systems. The selection left Oracle Corp and IBM Corp out of the competition for the contract for the Defense Department's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud, or JEDI.
- Bloomberg•5 days ago
SAP Executives Come Out Fighting as Shares Slump on Growth
(Bloomberg) -- SAP SE fell the most in nearly five years on signs that its $10 billion bet on cloud-based software faces headwinds, but the companies executives are adamant there is still room to grow.After buying U.S. startups Qualtrics International Inc. and Callidus Software Inc. to bolster its portfolio, SAP instead posted slower growth in new cloud bookings -- a keenly watched metric because it indicates future revenue. With profitability diluted by the shift to internet-based computing, a push to shore up margins failed to make progress in the second quarter.SAP fell as much as 10%, its steepest intraday drop since August 2015. The stock was down 5.9% at 3:40 p.m. in Frankfurt trading."What you’re not counting on is how much revenue will come SAP’s way by relying on” cloud partnerships with the likes of Amazon and Google, SAP’s Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott told analysts during a call. “There’s no reason to think this is slowing down."SAP’s new cloud bookings rose 15% at constant currencies, a drop from the 26% gain in the first three months of 2019 and the weakest figure in at least a year and a half.The lower order figure is due to the fact that SAP is focusing on higher-margin sales, and that more customers chose “pay as you go” products that aren’t counted toward that metric, Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic said. Excluding infrastructure-as-a-service, growth would be 27%, he said.The figures underscore the difficult transition to internet-based software as McDermott challenges rivals such as Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corp.Cloud sales can initially be less profitable than traditional on-premise installations, and SAP has pledged to increase its operating margin by 1 percentage point a year on average through 2023. In the second quarter, the figure was flat at 27.3%, with Walldorf, Germany-based SAP blaming trade tensions for delaying software spending in Asia as well as acquisition costs.“We’re exactly on track in what we need to hit our mid-term objectives to triple our cloud revenue by 2023,” Mucic said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “Also the profitability in the cloud is steeply increasing.”Total sales rose 11% to about 6.7 billion euros ($7.5 billion), boosted by strong growth from existing cloud customers, with revenue for the segment jumping 40%. Operating profit increased 11% to 1.82 billion euros.Uptake of SAP’s flagship S/4 Hana software accelerated in the April-June period, with the company adding about 600 customers for a total of more than 11,500 users. The software allows businesses to run tasks on their own machines or in a cloud-computing arrangement hosted by SAP or one of its partners. The company is farming out more of the low-margin computing backend to partners including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp.SAP stuck to its outlook for operating profit to rise at least 9.5% and cloud revenue to increase more than 33%. McDermott maintained his optimism that his strategy would pay off.The Qualtrics acquisition will prove to be a “growth catalyst,” the CEO said in a telephone interview. “There’s plenty of room to continue strong cloud bookings and cloud growth.”(Update with details from analyst call.)To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks•5 days ago
Should You Invest in the Invesco Dynamic Software ETF (PSJ)?
Sector ETF report for PSJ
- Zacks•5 days ago
ORCL vs. BLKB: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?
ORCL vs. BLKB: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?
- Bloomberg•5 days ago
Trump Expressed Concern About Pentagon Cloud-Computing Contract
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump recently demanded more information about how the Pentagon crafted a massive cloud-computing contract it’s poised to award to Amazon.com Inc. or Microsoft Corp., in order to decide whether he should intervene.The Defense Department is set to give the contract, worth as much as $10 billion over ten years, to one of the two companies next month. Amazon, whose cloud-computing technology leads the market, is seen as the favorite.But Trump recently was made aware of letters Republican members of Congress have written to the White House and military leaders complaining that the contract’s terms froze some companies -- including Oracle Corp. -- out of the competition, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump expressed frustration he wasn’t aware of the concerns and asked aides to show him the correspondence, the people said.Trump said he’s interested in looking into the circumstances of the bid but didn’t indicate he’ll try to block the contract from being awarded to one of the two finalists, they said.Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who recently wrote to the Pentagon to express concerns about the contract, said in an interview that he discussed it with the president aboard Air Force One last week.“He wanted to understand what the issues were, what our concerns were,” Johnson said in an interview.Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, sent a letter to National Security Adviser John Bolton on Thursday asking him to delay the contract award, saying the bid “suffers from a lack of competition.” Trump and Rubio spoke about the contract by phone the next day, a Rubio spokesman said.A person familiar with the call said that it sounded as if Trump was thinking about canceling the contract.All of the people asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive procurement issue. Spokesmen for the White House and Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.While Trump has leaned on defense contractors to reduce costs on contracts they already hold -- and even to paint new Air Force One planes in his choice of colors -- it may be unprecedented for a president to intervene in a defense contract competition while it’s underway.The cloud-computing program, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure or JEDI, has been contentious. Legacy tech companies including Oracle and International Business Machines Corp. waged a fierce lobbying and legal campaign against the Pentagon’s plan to award the contract to a single company.“Nothing good can come from President Trump becoming personally involved in an individual procurement, particularly one of this complexity,” said Steven Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University. “Historically, the system has operated best with limited -- to no -- high-level political involvement.”Oracle lost a legal challenge last week contesting the terms of the bid and alleging the Pentagon had crafted unfair requirements and that there were conflicts of interest involving Amazon. Republican lawmakers have taken up Oracle’s cause, pressuring the White House to intervene in the Pentagon project.Oracle at one point coordinated with at least seven other companies including Microsoft and SAP America to try to block Amazon from winning the entire contract, Bloomberg News has reported. Amazon has already won a contract with the Central Intelligence Agency.Oracle declined to comment for the story.For More: Inside the Nasty Battle to Stymie Amazon’s Pentagon Cloud BidIn April 2018, Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz dined with Trump at the White House and complained that it seemed designed for Amazon to win, Bloomberg has reported. The final requirements for the contract were released in July of that year.The White House raised concerns about the contract with senior Pentagon leaders while they were still drafting the final requirements for the deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.(Updates with expert comment in 12th paragraph. The spelling of Oracle CEO Safra Catz’s name was corrected in a previous version of the story.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Naomi Nix in Washington at nnix1@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Sara FordenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks•6 days ago
Should Invesco Defensive Equity ETF (DEF) Be on Your Investing Radar?
Style Box ETF report for DEF
- Zacks•7 days ago
Zacks.com featured highlights include: Oracle, AngloGold Ashanti, AmerisourceBergen, Ford Motor and CACI International
Zacks.com featured highlights include: Oracle, AngloGold Ashanti, AmerisourceBergen, Ford Motor and CACI International
- Zacks•8 days ago
5 Discounted PEG Stocks Suitable for Value Investors
While P/E alone fails to identify a true value stock, PEG helps to find the intrinsic value of a stock.
- Zacks•8 days ago
Oracle (ORCL) Loses JEDI Lawsuit: Here's What You Should Know
Oracle (ORCL) fails to win the lawsuit challenging JEDI contract's policies and qualifying criteria. Oracle's opposition to JEDI is likely to weigh on its ongoing business with DoD.
- Zacks•8 days ago
Accenture (ACN) Promotes Julie Sweet to Global CEO Position
Accenture (ACN) makes itself a rare company to have women in both CEO and CFO positions.
- Bloomberg•11 days ago
Oracle Loses Challenge to $10 Billion Pentagon Cloud Contract
(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. lost its legal challenge to the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud contract on Friday, clearing the way for the government to award the contract to Amazon.com Inc. or Microsoft Corp.Federal Claims Court Senior Judge Eric Bruggink dismissed the company’s argument that the contract violates federal procurement laws and is unfairly tainted by conflicts of interests. Bruggink said that because Oracle didn’t meet the criteria for the bid, it “cannot demonstrate prejudice as a result of other possible errors in the procurement process.”The decision is a major blow to Oracle, which risks losing a share of its federal defense business if the Pentagon awards the contract to another cloud company. The ruling eliminates a headache for the Pentagon, which has been fending off challenges to its winner-take-all strategy in the cloud contract for more than a year.“Oracle will likely be most threatened by this” decision, said Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst James Bach. “They stand to lose the most ground in the Defense market if the DOD decides JEDI is the end-all be-all.”Oracle looks forward to “working with the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and other public sector agencies to deploy modern, secure hyperscale cloud solutions that meet their needs,” company spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement. She didn’t comment on whether the company plans to appeal the decision.Elissa Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that the ruling “reaffirms the DOD’s position: the JEDI Cloud procurement process has been conducted as a fair, full and open competition, which the contracting officer and her team executed in compliance with the law.”Amazon Web Services, which was also a defendant in the case, said in a statement that the company “stands ready to support and serve what’s most important – the DoD’s mission of protecting the security of our country.”JEDI ProjectThe project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud -- or JEDI, an acronym intended to evoke “Star Wars” imagery -- is intended to be the Defense Department’s general-purpose cloud for most of its systems and applications.The Pentagon is investing in commercial cloud services, in which computing power and storage are hosted in remote data centers, to consolidate its existing technology products, embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning, and enhance its technical capabilities on the battlefield.Vying for the contract became contentious as legacy tech companies such as Oracle and International Business Machines Corp. waged a fierce lobbying and legal campaign against the Pentagon’s decision to choose just one provider. Although they are long-time government contractors, those companies were late entrants to the cloud computing market and eyed market leader Amazon as a threat to their traditional revenue streams from the Defense Department.In April, the Pentagon eliminated Oracle and IBM from the competition, leaving Amazon and Microsoft as the final contenders. Dana Deasy, the Pentagon’s chief information officer, has said the Defense Department expects to make an award in August.Amazon Web Services was widely seen as the front-runner for the contest because it had already won a $600 million contract from the Central Intelligence Agency that helped it obtain much-needed security approvals. Microsoft is catching up to Amazon through its advancements in winning such clearances, as well as a recent cloud deal with the intelligence community and years of experience working with the Defense Department.Partial VindicationThe ruling is a partial vindication for Pentagon officials who have battled months of allegations that its procurement process was corrupt, including the circulation of a 33-page anti-Amazon dossier around Washington that suggested improper personal relationships had given Amazon an edge. The Defense Department has also faced pressure from lawmakers, who criticized the deal for lacking enough competition from industry.There are still potential hurdles for the Defense Department as it moves forward with the bid. Either Microsoft or Amazon could lodge a challenge of the contract with Government Accountability Office or in the Federal Claims Court if they were to lose. Oracle could also appeal the ruling in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.On Friday, Chris Lynch, the former director of the Defense Digital Service, which designed the project, praised his former team for their work on the project.“JEDI will immediately deliver much needed capabilities to the warfighter, deliver incredible capabilities that are built from the best tech, and it will change lives,” he tweeted. “Couldn’t be more proud.”Contested TermsOracle’s lawsuit, which was filed in December, alleged that the Pentagon’s minimum requirements for the contract as well as its decision to pick just one winner violated federal procurement laws designed to ensure competition. The government has said choosing one winner would reduce security risks and better enable it to consolidate its technology products.The suit also claimed that the procurement has been marred by conflicts of interest, including ties between former Defense Department officials and Amazon. At least two of the former employees were offered jobs at the company while working on the contract, according to the lawsuit.The Pentagon determined in its internal review that the relationships had no adverse impact on the integrity of the acquisition process but said the department’s inspector general was looking into potential unethical conduct. Bruggink said in his ruling that the Defense Department’s determination on the allegations was not “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.”(Updates with Pentagon comment in sixth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Nico Grant.To contact the reporter on this story: Naomi Nix in Washington at nnix1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch•11 days ago
Judge dismisses Oracle lawsuit over $10B Pentagon JEDI cloud contract
Oracle has been complaining about the procurement process around thePentagon's $10 billion, decade-long JEDI cloud contract, even before the DoDopened requests for proposals last year
- Simply Wall St.•11 days ago
Here's What We Like About Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)'s Upcoming Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Oracle...
- Zacks•12 days ago
Intuit (INTU) Hits Fresh High: Is There Still Room to Run?
Intuit (INTU) is at a 52-week high, but can investors hope for more gains in the future? We take a look at the company's fundamentals for clues.
