Wikipedia source excerpts
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( HEW-lit PAK-ərd) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California. Growing to become an influential high-tech powerhouse at the heart of Silicon Valley, the company was known for its progressive business philosophy, deemed the HP Way. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components, as well as software and related services, to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and fairly large companies, including customers in government sectors. At its peak in 2011, HP employed 350,000 people around the globe. The company officially split into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. in 2015.
HP initially produced a line of electronic test and measurement equipment. It won its first big contract in 1938 to provide the HP 200B, a variation of its first product, the HP 200A low-distortion frequency oscillator, for Walt Disney's production of the 1940 animated film Fantasia, which allowed Hewlett and Packard to formally establish the Hewlett-Packard Company on July 2, 1939. The company grew into a multinational corporation widely respected for its products. HP was the world's leading PC manufacturer from 2007 until the second quarter of 2013 when Lenovo moved ahead of HP. HP specialized in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software, and delivering services. Major product lines included personal computing devices, enterprise and industry standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software, and a range of printers and other imaging products. The company directly marketed its products to households, small- to medium-sized businesses, and enterprises, as well as via online distribution, consumer-electronics, and office-supply retailers, software partners, and major technology vendors. It also offered services and a consulting business for its products and partner products.
In 1999, HP spun off its electronic and bio-analytical test and measurement instruments business into Agilent Technologies; HP retained focus on its later products, including computers and printers. It merged with Compaq in 2002 in what was then a major deal within the industry. They made numerous other acquisitions including Electronic Data Systems in 2008, which led to combined revenues of $118.4 billion that year and a Fortune 500 ranking of 9 in 2009, and later 3Com, Palm, Inc., and 3PAR, all in 2010, followed by Autonomy Corp. However, as a result of the turmoil created by several of these acquisitions, the company's fortunes swiftly declined in the 2010s. This led to Hewlett-Packard Company's split into two separate companies on November 1, 2015: its enterprise products and services business were spun-off to form Hewlett Packard Enterprise, while its personal computer and printer businesses became HP Inc. The split was structured so that the former Hewlett-Packard Company would change its name to HP Inc. and spin off Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a newly created company. HP Inc.
re and related services, to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and fairly large companies, including customers in government sectors. At its peak in 2011, HP employed 350,000 people around the globe. The company officially split into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. in 2015.
HP initially produced a line of electronic test and measurement equipment. It won its first big contract in 1938 to provide the HP 200B, a variation of its first product, the HP 200A low-distortion frequency oscillator, for Walt Disney's production of the 1940 animated film Fantasia, which allowed Hewlett and Packard to formally establish the Hewlett-Packard Company on July 2, 1939. The company grew into a multinational corporation widely respected for its products. HP was the world's leading PC manufacturer from 2007 until the second quarter of 2013 when Lenovo moved ahead of HP. HP specialized in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software, and delivering services. Major product lines included personal computing devices, enterprise and industry standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software, and a range of printers and other imaging products. The company directly marketed its products to households, small- to medium-sized businesses, and enterprises, as well as via online distribution, consumer-electronics, and office-supply retailers, software partners, and major technology vendors. It also offered services and a consulting business for its products and partner products.
In 1999, HP spun off its electronic and bio-analytical test and measurement instruments business into Agilent Technologies; HP retained focus on its later products, including computers and printers. It merged with Compaq in 2002 in what was then a major deal within the industry. They made numerous other acquisitions including Electronic Data Systems in 2008, which led to combined revenues of $118.4 billion that year and a Fortune 500 ranking of 9 in 2009, and later 3Com, Palm, Inc., and 3PAR, all in 2010, followed by Autonomy Corp. However, as a result of the turmoil created by several of these acquisitions, the company's fortunes swiftly declined in the 2010s. This led to Hewlett-Packard Company's split into two separate companies on November 1, 2015: its enterprise products and services business were spun-off to form Hewlett Packard Enterprise, while its personal computer and printer businesses became HP Inc. The split was structured so that the former Hewlett-Packard Company would change its name to HP Inc. and spin off Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a newly created company. HP Inc.
HP is recognized as the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley, though it did not actively investigate semiconductor devices until a few years after the "traitorous eight" abandoned William Shockley to create Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. The company's HP Associates division was established around 1960 under the leadership of Jack Melchor to develop semiconductor devices primarily for internal use. Instruments and calculators were some of the original HP products that used semiconductor devices.
During the 1960s, HP partnered with Sony and Yokogawa Electric in Japan to develop several high-quality products. The products were not a huge success, as there were high costs involved in building HP-looking products in Japan. In 1963, HP and Yokogawa formed the joint venture Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard to market HP products in Japan. HP bought Yokogawa Electric's share of Hewlett-Packard Japan in 1999.
HP spun off the small company Dynac to specialize in digital equipment. The name was picked so that the HP logo could be turned upside down to be a reflected image of the logo of the new company. Dynac was eventually renamed Dymec and folded back into HP in 1959. HP experimented with using Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) minicomputers with its instruments, but entered the computer market in 1966 with the HP 2100 / HP 1000 series of minicomputers after it decided that it would be easier to build another small design team than deal with DEC. The minicomputers had a simple accumulator-based design with two accumulator registers and, in the HP 1000 models, two index registers. The series was produced for 20 years in spite of several attempts to replace it, and was a forerunner of the HP 9800 and HP 250 series of desktop and business computers.
Beginning in 1961, Hewlett-Packard was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (as well as the now-closed Pacific Exchange) under its own ticker symbol, "HWP". At the end of 1968, Packard handed over the duties of CEO to Hewlett to become United States Deputy Secretary of Defense in the incoming Nixon administration.