Tuesday, January 27, 2009

New York-M/A-COM impact promises to reverberate throughout

New York-M/A-COM impact promises to reverberate throughout industry

As expected, it looks like the dispute between Tyco Electronics M/A-COM and the state of New York is on the verge of ugliness, as the vendor has filed a notice of its intent to sue the state for backing out of a $2 billion contract and taking at least $50 million out of the company's letter of credit. In short, the state says M/A-COM's system doesn't work, citing multiple failed tests conducted during the past year, the latest one in November. M/A-COM claims the system has no technical deficiencies, but New York "repeatedly hindered" the company's efforts to ...

...In light of the New York situation, it's going to be tempting for vendors and agencies alike to look even more closely at the wording of RFPs, contracts and testing procedures. Certainly both parties should always conduct due diligence on such important documents. Let's just hope that so many lawyers don't get involved that it becomes virtually impossible for deals to get done, because first responders only get improved communications when better systems are deployed, not when attorneys argue over the wording of contracts.

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