IBM Suspended From US Federal Contracts

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."

Re:April Fewls

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod troll down. That page opens a shitload of pop-ups for GNAA>

Re:April Fewls

[Krupuk]

Don't click on the above link, page contains Virus! (This is _not_ a joke!)

No Joke?

[EyeMyke]

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 [epls.gov] Unless it's a really elaborate .gov joke...

This story is legit (AFAIK)

[tekrat]

Just do a search in Google news for IBM and you'll find the story. Looks legit to me, although the Register clearly has an April Fools story that Robert Scobe is an IBM construction with 1TB of memory.

Re:Tags

[atezun]

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.

Re:Tags

[josteos]

Background on the tag:
http://www.itprotips.com/memes/slashdot/OMGPOWNIES [itprotips.com]

Mentioned on NYSE site so presumably not a hoax

[pdcull]

I suspect that this isn't an April Fool's joke as it is mentioned on the NYSE site here [nyse.com]

Re:April Fewls

[Anonymous Coward]

The video is real. Not a virus.

Not a hoax, not a joke.

[Anonymous Coward]

/.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.

Re:Tags

[Devistater]

Yeah, I thought there was a way to still show that color scheme for slashdot, but I can't find it.

I googled and turned up this random mirror of the /. page that day though with the omgponies color scheme:
http://onaserver.org/omgponies/ [onaserver.org]

Re:Tags

[cerberusss]

Use the Slashdotter Firefox extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2175 [mozilla.org] That way you can select a specific stylesheet, amongst them the OMG ponies.

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

CNN had the news yesterday, it's real.

Basically, the EPA thinks IBM ripped it off some way or another.

Re:Not a hoax, not a joke.

[crtech]

It is definitely NOT a hoax or a joke. Here's the press release from IBM: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23785.wss [ibm.com]

IBM's Eligibility Reinstated

[Anonymous Coward]

ARMONK, N.Y. - 04 Apr 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to terminate the temporary suspension order barring IBM from participating in new Federal government business.

Effective immediately, IBM will resume participating in new business with all federal agencies -- ending a suspension that began March 27, 2008.

IBM will continue to cooperate with the EPA's ongoing investigation of possible violations of the Procurement Integrity provisions of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act regarding a bid for business with the EPA, and with a related investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

link: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23814.wss [ibm.com]