Rand Simberg wrote:

It puts Boeing in an interesting position though. Suppose they say
"We're not interested in doing Delta IV anymore, it doesn't pay." to the
US Gov. is the government going to have to come back with Big Money(TM)
to tempt them?


I think that they were making exactly that threat to avoid getting
slapped over the corporate espionage, but the Air Force called their
bluff.


If they genuinely thought they were getting off entirely (given the
unambiguous violation and it's impressive scope), that was absurd. But
it's not a binary system - there are degrees of "slapping", and I
wouldn't assume that there wasn't some reduction in penalty as a result.

I also wouldn't necessarily call the move a "bluff". If they truly
got bounced out of all bidding of the next several block buys, they
would probably cut the business loose in a heartbeat. The existing
punishment hits them hard, but isn't a kill shot. And the punishment
has a lot of room for variations down the road, to get the desired result.

Look at the punishment as, effectively, a fine.

Brett