HP has won a $35 million five-year contract to supply the US Internal Revenue Service with PCs after a deal between the tax authority and Dell went sour.

The IRS had been a HP customer, prior to defecting to Dell, after the tax authority held a reverse auction to decide on its preferred supplier. Problems appeared half-way through the contract however when, according to HP, "Dell refused to fulfil the remaining part of the order at the price agreed to in the auction".

The IRS asked reseller PlanetGov to find a supplier to make up the shortfall in the contract on equivalent terms. HP agreed to these terms, becoming once again the taxman's favourite PC vendor.

Thanks to this "competitive win-back for the new HP", the company will supply the IRS with more than 12,300 Compaq Evo D500 desktop PCs and monitors and more than 11,000 Compaq Evo N800 notebooks. ®