Many contracts have that clause standard and the compensation they are referring to was his salary.

Thank god that I live in a state where that part of the contract is not worth the paper its written on. Imagine having to change industries every time you wanted to leave a company..

How daft are you? He didn't have to take the compensation to not work at a competitor. If you accept an agreement and are financially compensated for it, then you can have no compliants.

Stupid is more like it, on his part.

Looks like Dell is trying to use one of Microsoft's play book tricks.