Ross Perot’s new company, Perot Systems, has declared all-out war on his original creation, Electronic Data Systems Corp, and will seek to hit the General Motors subsidiary in its heartland by competing on a non-profit basis for contracts from key commercial EDS customers. Perot made his declaration – you’re going to see warfare in the streets – after the General Services Admin istration contract appeals board ordered work stopped on his single tender contract with the US Postal Service late Thursday. Perot believes that the contract became a political issue in Washington only after lobbying was orchestrated against it by EDS and GM, and he directly blames his former company for the suspension. Under his severance agreement with General Motors, Perot was precluded from competing in any way with EDS until June 1 this year, and may not compete for profit until December 1989. He therefore now intends to seek contracts on a cost only basis until he is free to compete for profit. Although he has only a couple of dozen employees, he says that he has had 6,000 job applications and that there is plenty of potential business to seek. His agreement with the Postal Service involved a three month study of its operations, for which Perot Systems would be paid $500,000, and a 10-year consultancy contract on which the company would get a share of the savings achieved. Postmaster General Anthony Frank, who has gone to court to seek a ruling that the Postal Service, as a public corporation, is outside the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration, now con cedes that changes will have to be made to the savings-sharing element of the contract to make it acceptable to Congress. Why is Perot reacting so fiercely? Even Mike Tyson gets tired of people hitting him: I’m tired of people hitting me.
