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IBM Suspended From US Federal Contracts

Posted by Zonk on from the shouldn't-aught-to-have-done-that dept.

theodp writes "IBM has been temporarily banned from receiving future contracts with federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed on Monday. The suspension went into effect last Thursday due to 'concerns raised about potential activities involving an EPA procurement,' the agency said in an e-mailed statement. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it. The EPA said it will not comment further on the matter. An IBM spokesman said he had no immediate comment. 'You don't see this very often, particularly for large companies,' commented a stunned industry analyst, mentioning a bankrupt MCI as a notable exception. IBM earned an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue from federal prime contracts in fiscal 2007."

6 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. No Joke? by EyeMyke · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't think this is a Apr 1 joke... http://www.epls.gov/epls/search.do?debar_recid=98050&status=current&vindex=0&xref=true Unless it's a really elaborate .gov joke...

    --
    Mike Pacific
  2. Hrm.... by Misanthrope · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nobody ever got fired for......
    Well crap.

  3. Re:Tags by atezun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Several years ago on April fools slashdot changed it's entire colour scheme to a pink my little pony type theme and I beleive had the words omigodponies displayed on the site, possibly in place of slashdot. It's generally regarded as slashdot's best April fools joke.

  4. Re:Tags by MMC+Monster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Several years ago on April fools slashdot changed it's entire colour scheme to a pink my little pony type theme and I beleive had the words omigodponies displayed on the site, possibly in place of slashdot. It's generally regarded as slashdot's best April fools joke. Actually, it was regarded as slashdot's best theme.
    --
    Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  5. Not a hoax, not a joke. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    /.ers:

    The timing is curious but I can assure you this is not a joke. I work as a contractor for DHS and the word came down yesterday. We said the same thing - you're kidding, right? - but it turned out to be a very real order.

    I don't know how IBM is about delivering on contracts themselves, but we as a contractor (in conjunction with the government program managers) use IBM commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software extensively. Since the DHS reciprocal ban includes purchase orders, this really throws a wrench in our works. We are looking at the possibility of switching a 500+ head software development shop from IBM-Rational to...something else, by the end of the year when our maintenance runs out. Another project I work with was just evaluating and beginning development with WebSphere, and they are going to completely lose momentum.

    I am sure other agencies are doing the same as far as the extent of implementation of the ban. This might be good for the taxpayers in the long run, but right now it is causing a lot of billable hours to be spent scrambling, so I sure hope it's worth it, EPA.

  6. Re:Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, what appallingly illegal and unconstitutional thing did the government ask IBM to do?