Amazon is close to sealing the deal with the Pentagon for a $10 billion contract, despite President Trump’s continual attacks on the tech giant.
The deal will see Amazon taking over the Pentagon’s cloud services for the Department of Defence as it overhauls its IT systems.
The competitive deal has not yet been finalised, though sources in the know claim the contract is extremely close to being signed.
Another source close to the deal said, “I can’t imagine any possible way that the deal could be stopped,” adding that it’s “only waiting for the contract start date to be officially announced.”
Trump has recently taken to Twitter to condemn the tech giant’s monopolisation of the market, as well as throw his support behind the US Post Office.
I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy. Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2018
The bid for the contract has been contentious from the onset, with critics of Amazon going so far as submitting ads ridiculing the president on different news sites.
Group Less Government funded an ad on the New York Post which featured a laughing Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon saying ‘your Defence Department is set to award a no-bid, ten-year contract for all its IT infrastructure to Administration-enemy Jeff Bezos’ Amazon‘.
Though, critics of Amazon can be found the world over.
Just last week, marketing guru Brad Berens opened ad:tech Sydney with some less-than-savoury comments about the tech giant.
Beren said that Amazon is one of the most trusted brands in America. But for brands, “Amazon is not your friend, it’s a remorseless shark that never stops eating, moving and it’s going to attack you from a direction that you don’t expect”.
Beren explains, “When you say, ‘hey Alexa, I need Duracell batteries.’ Alexa replies, ‘Sorry I don’t have them, but we do have Amazon home brand batteries.’ In simple terms, they are training users to accept the generic. Brands vanish in a voice environment.”
This is why, according to Berens, “Brands should be doing everything they can to destroy Amazon and doubling down with Google.”
