I talked to BB @ ORBI IR today. He sez:
(1) Each of the three companies (LMT, Coleman[TMO], and ORBI) was bidding on the same overall package of work. When a particular contract is due for actual award, each of the three companies will have to bid against one another. Thus, what we have as of Friday is essentially a designation of the three pre-qualified companies, not any awards per se.
(2) The option could stretch the procurement out until 2008, without increasing the announced numbers.
(3) The award of all of these contracts is contingent on the Army's perceived need and future budget.
(4) ORBI has not decided how much, if any, of this amount will be posted to the company's backlog.
Nonetheless, he did agree that this is big news, as I'm sure we all suspect. BTW, they were apparently blindsided by the Army's overly simplified Friday PR. According to BB, ORBI is reluctant to issue a press release just now because any truthful release would seem to be a retreat from the seemingly gigantic numbers that the Army put out without explanation. He said they may issue something later this week. My guess is, they will wait until they figure out how much extra backlog, if any this deal means.
I have seen companies fail to publicize IDIQ contracts before. |
