The Pentagon™s top product and services buyer made it official this week that the would no longer advocate for greater authority to regulate GovCon merger-and-acquisition activities that involve the large primes.

Frank Kendall told an audience at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event Tuesday the Defense Department discovered it has more power than previously thought over M&A, according to a Defense News report.

As previously described in this space, Kendall™s office started a push in the fall for more regulatory oversight with regards to consolidation among the largest prime government contractors with a particular focus on those in the defense arena.

Then in April, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission released a public letter that sought to reiterate their authority over M&A but also acknowledged their reliance on DoD for direction due to the defense industry™s œparticular aspects such as high barriers to entry that make the sector different from others in the commercial world.

The composition of GovCon™s largest platform and product makers appears likely to remain as is and not go through another œLast Supper consolidation wave that occurred in the mid-1990s.

On the flipside, consolidation among the sectors™ services-oriented companies has been well-documented over the past two years in light of flat or shrinking budgets plus changing nature of contracts to more price-conscious methods and shared vehicles with multiple awardees.

In case you missed it Sunday morning, GovCon Wire™s lead reporter Ross Wilkers spoke to WMAL radio™s œNational Defense Week program hosted by Francis ROse for a segment to discuss the M&A landscape and first quarter earnings season for defense giants.

Click here to listen to the full 8-minute conversation.

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