Telling a vendor who they're bidding against is acceptable.How much they bid is a secret until after the winner is selected. In this dialoge,Bill 's bid lost and Masha discusses it with him.

Bill: So how did I do?

Marsha:Not too good, I'm sorry.

Bill:I lost?

Marsha:It was close.

To be honest, you had the lowest price by three cents per uint,but they didn't like your delivery date.

Acme promised them almost a full month sooner.

Bill:So the price was good?

Marsha:Yes,they loved the price;the delivery date was the problem. They just didn't want to cut the delivery date that close.

If something went wrong and you didn't deliver,we might not be able to get stock in time for Christmas.

If you could have been two or three weeks faster on delivery, they might have gone with you.

Bill: So I didn't miss by much then.

Marsha:No.It was very close and they argued over the bid for a long time. Better luck next time.

Bill:I knew the delivery was slow but I figured the price would win it for me.

Marsha:That's possible,Bill.

But the price would have to have been a lot lower, like around fifty cents per unit.