One Big Customer That Stuck With Dell

Aeorspace giant and integrator Lockheed Martin reports, in its recent proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that it bought a significant amount of computer equipment from Dell last year while James Schneider, who was a top executive at Dell, sat on Lockheed's board of directors:

One of our directors, Mr. Schneider, served as Senior Vice President of Dell, Inc. until February 2007. In 2006, we paid $47,460,000 for the purchase of computer equipment and services from Dell in the ordinary course of business, which amount represented less than 1 percent of Dell's 2006 revenues.

Schneider quit last year as Dell's chief financial officer, and left the company completely last month.