Dell, Boeing in a 5-yr contract

NEW YORK: Personal computer maker, Dell Inc. said that it had won a 5-year contract from Boeing Co., the world's largest aircraft maker, to provide services for PCs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, is trying to increase the size of its services business. It said that it had already supplied personal computers to the Seattle aircraft company.

A Boeing spokesman said that Dell bid against most major players in the computer industry but declined to name the other bidders. Boeing has 150,000 employees that are tied into desktops or notebook computers, he said.

International Business Machines Corp. had provided some services for PCs to Dell, Boeing said, as part of a larger contract that Boeing broke up into a handful of separate contracts earlier this year. IBM won a three-year, $160 million voice communications deal in August.

Other computer companies include Hewlett-Packard Co.