Cisco, GSA fall out over schedule contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Cisco Systems Inc.'s GSA schedule contract is set to expire as negotiations stall.
Cisco Systems Inc.'s General Services Administration schedule contract is set to expire today because the company, letter-of-supply holder immixGroup and GSA have failed to negotiate a new contract.
Cisco officials said negotiations are continuing. "In the meantime, Cisco's products remain widely available to federal customers through numerous other suppliers," the company said in a statement.
Talks between GSA and Cisco apparently broke down over pricing and other requirements GSA was trying to impose, a source said.
Cisco and immixGroup want to resolve the issues but couldn't before the contract's expiration date, the source said.
GSA officials were not available for comment.
Cisco wants to get back on the schedule and is not walking away, the source said.
The breakdown between Cisco and GSA is reminiscent of problems the agency ran into last year with Sun Microsystems Inc., Canon USA and EMC Corp.
Those companies walked away from the schedule after negotiations broke down over what the companies saw as unreasonable demands by GSA.