The US General Services Administration duly announced why it had snatched the $740m Desktop IV personal computer contract away from Zenith Data Systems Inc (CI No 2,077), saying that the rejection was in part because the US Air Force failed to consider splitting the contract between vendors properly: it said that Zenith Data also failed to meet requirements that an adequate portion of the computers be US-built; French Trade & Industry Minister Dominique Strauss Kahn said yesterday that he hoped that Zenith, owned by France’s chronic lossmaker, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, would still win at least part of the contract; Strauss-Kahn said he would not go into the legal reasons cited but added he would be watching carefully to make sure there was no discrimination inawarding the contract; Zenith officials in the US were also confident that the firm had a good chance of finally clinching the big contract.
