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ARTICLE · 13 MARCH 2017

How An Acquisition Can Jeopardize Pending Bids

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hen acquiring a government contractor, review and analysis of the target's current government contracts is a central focus of due diligence for purposes of assessing the legal and business risks.

United StatesGovernment, Public Sector
Steven Diamond
Steven Diamond
Joan Ochs
Joan Ochs
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Originally published by Law360 Government Contracts, Law360 Mergers & Acquisitions, and Law360 Private Equity, December 2016

When acquiring a government contractor, review and analysis of the target's current government contracts is a central focus of due diligence for purposes of assessing the legal and business risks. Pending bids and proposals, however, also present unique issues and challenges and could have a significant impact on the anticipated value of the business. Post-acquisition, the loss of resources from a former parent company or affiliated company may jeopardize the target company's pending proposals. This situation could arise both where the proposal is successful and a protester challenges the award to the successor contractor, and where the successor contractor is not the successful awardee and itself seeks to challenge the procuring agency's award decision. This article discusses recent decisions issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office

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