Company Profile: Hewlett Packard

Hewlett Packard, or HP, is a multinational IT company with headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, and today, it is one of the largest IT companies in the world with offices in almost every country. HP's specialty is the development and manufacture of data storage, computing and networking hardware; they also design and deliver software and services. HP sells its products to individuals, as well as small and large businesses, office supply and consumer electronics stores and tech vendors.

Hewlett and Packard graduated from Stanford University with electrical engineering degrees in 1935. The company was founded in a Palo Alto garage during the Great Depression; professor Frederic Terman was instrumental in its founding. HP was incorporated in August of 1947, and had its IPO ten years later. HP is deemed the producer of the first mass-production personal computer, the HP 9100A, which was introduced in 1968. The company called it a desktop calculator, to avoid rejection from tech experts who were used to the looks of the IBM. The logic circuit was ahead of its time, being produced without integrated circuits. It had a CRT monitor, a magnetic card storage and a printer, and cost about $5000 at the time.

Hewlett-Packard has successful calculator, computer, digital camera, PDA, printer, scanner and workstation lines, suitable for home and small business use. Most of HP's computers have their origins with the 2002 Compaq merger. Today, HP promotes itself as a supplier of not only software and hardware, but of services for the designing, implementation and support of IT. HP offers complete IT solutions for other companies, such as professional and premier support for Microsoft from its Irish and Israeli offices. HP also outsources services for banks in the UK and for the US Department of Defense.