The Hewlett-Packard Company (nyse: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is an information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP is the largest technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country. HP specializes in building personal computers, notebook computers, servers, blades, switches, printers, calculators, networking products, software, telephones, PDAs, digital cameras, storage, communication platforms, and home media devices among other technology related products and services.

The company once catered primarily to engineering and medical marketsa line of business it spun off as Agilent Technologies in 1999. Today, it operates as a diverse company marketing specific products to households, small to medium size businesses and enterprises. HP sells products such as printers and printer supplies, home and business PCs, and industry-standard servers both directly, via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology vendors such as CDW.

HP posted US $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006 compared to US$91.4 billion for IBM, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion.

HP is the largest worldwide seller of personal computers, surpassing rival Dell, according to market research firms Gartner and IDC reported in January 2008; the gap between HP and Dell widened substantially at the end of 2007, with HP taking a near 3.9% market share lead. HP is also the 5th largest software company in the world.

Company history

Founding

William (Bill) Hewlett and David (Dave) Packard both graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1934. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Frederick Terman at Stanford during the Great Depression. Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard.

The partnership was formalized on January 1, 1939 with an investment of US$538. Hewlett and Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Packard won the coin toss but named their electronics manufacturing enterprise the "Hewlett-Packard Company".

HP incorporated on August 8, 1947, and went public on November 6, 1957.