TOKYO (Bloomberg) - Dell Inc., the world's second-largest maker of personal computers, said International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM) possible purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc. creates opportunities to snap up customers.

IBM, the world's biggest computer-services provider, is in talks to buy Santa Clara, California-based Sun, two people familiar with the matter said last week. Dell is working to lure concerned Sun customers away, CEO Michael Dell said yesterday at a briefing in Tokyo.

Dell and IBM, along with Hewlett-Packard Co., are competing for a waning pool of business as customers cut budgets to cope with the economic slump. Sun's customer base, which includes AT&T Inc. and China Mobile Ltd., is part of the draw for IBM and would give it almost half of server sales worldwide.

"Just the rumour of IBM potentially purchasing Sun creates an enormous opportunity, because all of the Sun accounts are very concerned about what will happen" to Sun's proprietary products for server computers, Dell said.