EDS Inks Deal With Flemish GovernmentEDS Inks Deal With Flemish Government

Troubled IT services firm EDS said Friday it has signed a five-year deal to provide a range of computing and support services to the Flemish government in partnership with Belgian telecom provider Telindus Group. EDS says the Flemish government, which presides over Belgium's Flanders region, plans to spend a total of $513 million on IT technology and services over the life of the contract, the value of which will be determined by how much of that total the government steers toward the EDS-Telindus consortium.

Under the agreement, EDS and Telindus will provide the government with a range of application development, networking, and cybersecurity services. Many of the services will be provided at Telindus' International Service Center in Heverlee, Belgium.

EDS can use any cash generated by the deal. Earlier this week, the company issued $1.7 billion in long-term debt and saw its credit rating downgraded to a level just above junk-bond status by Moody's Investor Services. EDS said the downgrade, among other things, forced the company to meet a contractual obligation to make payment in full for a software contract valued at $227 million.