HP

Type:	Public
Industry:	Computer & Information Technology
Founded:	1939
Founder(s):	Bill Hewlett Dave Packard
Headquarters:	Palo Alto, California
Country:	USA
Employees:	324,600
Revenue:	$125.6 billlion as of 2010
Website:	www.hp.com
Facebook:	HP
LinkedIn:	Hewlett Packard
Twitter:	@HP
Key People
Dion Weisler, President & CEO

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is an information technology company which offers a wide range of products, services and IT infrastructure solutions worldwide. The company serves more than 1 billion consumers located in 170 countries and employs more than 324,600 individuals. In 2010, HP ranked 11 in the Fortune 500 Ranking. HP also recorded a total revenue of $126 billion as of October, 2011. Its headquarters is located in Palo Alto, California.

Timelime

The following historical events are from Hewlett and Packard Company Interactive Historical Timeline.

• 1939- Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, both students from Stanford University, established the Hewlett and Packard Company in a rented garage in Palo Alto, California with an initial capital of $538 and a used drill press. HP's first product was an audio oscillator. Walt Disney Company was the first customer to purchase 8 HP Model 200B oscillators, which were used to show the animated film Fantasia in 1940.
• 1940- HP moved their operation and rented a building in Palo Alto and issued the first Christmas bonuses to their employees, worth $5. The company adopted the production bonus, which became the foundation of the company's profit sharing program. The company also entered the microwave industry and built its first audio signal generator.
• 1947- The company was incorporated on August 18. Dave Packard became the president of the company while Bill Hewlett served as vice-president.
• 1950- HP invented the fast frequency counter
• 1956- The company manufactured its first oscilloscopes
• 1957- HP went public on November 6 with an initial public offering of $16 per share. Employees in the company with 6 month service received stock grants and became eligible in the company's stock option program. The company also started building its new headquarters, located at Stanford Industrial Park in Palo Alto.
• 1958- The company acquired F.L. Moseley Company, a manufacturer of graphic recorders. The acquisition became the foundation of HP's printing business.
• 1959- HP started its international operation. The company built a manufacturing plant in Germany and established its marketing organization in Switzerland.
• 1960- The company was listed in the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HWP.
• 1961- The company acquired Sanborn Company and entered in the medical industry.
• 1962- HP ranked 460 in the Fortune 500 list.
• 1963- The HP 5100A frequency synthesizer was launched in the market. The product is used in deep-space vehicles. During the same year, the company signed a joint venture with the Yokogawa Company to enter the Asian Market; Yokogawa-Hewlett Packard was formed in Tokyo.
• 1964- Dave Packard became Chairman and CEO of the company while Bill Hewlett was named president. The HP 5060A atomic clock was also introduced in the market. The product was the first accurate standard for international time.
• 1966- The company opened its HO Laboratories with Barney Oliver as the Founding Director. The company also introduced its first computer product, the HP 2116A.
• 1968- HP introduced HP 9100A, the first desktop scientific calculator
• 1969- Dave Packard was appointed as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and served the country until 1972. Hewlett served as CEO of the company.
• 1970- HP became the world leader in laser interferometer market after inventing the laser interferometer capable of taking infinitesimal measurements.
• 1972- The company entered the computing business and introduced the HP 3000 distributed data processing.The HP-35, the first hand-held scientific calculator was also introduced,
• 1974- HP introduced the first minicomputer based on 4K dynamic random access memory chips (DRAM) and HP-65, the first programmable pocket calculator.
• 1975 - The electronics industry adopted the HP interface bus as an international standard to allow instruments to connect easily to a computer.
• 1977- Bill Young was appointed president of the company. Packard remained chairman and Hewlett remained CEO of the company. The company also launched the wrist instrument,a digital wrist watch, calculator and personal calendar.
• 1979- The HP foundation was established
• 1980- HP 85, the company's first personal computer was launched. The product has an input-out put module capable of communicating with other computers.
• 1981- HP 12 C, the world's first standard business calculator was introduced.
• 1982- The HP electronic mail system was introduced based on minicomputers. The company also introduced HP-75c, the first hand-held computer.
• 1883- HP-150 Touch Screen PC was launched. Bill Hewlett received the National Medal of Science Award.
• 1984- The HP Think Jet was introduced. The HP Laser Jet became the most famous persoal desktop laser printer.
• 1985- HP introduced the Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)
• 1988- HP was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
• 1991- The company revolutionized color printing by introducing the HP Deskjet 500C
• 1992- Lew Platt became President and CEO of the company
• 1993- Dave Packard retired as Chairman of the company, 10 million HP Laser Jets were sold and the HP Omnibook 300 was introduced in the market.
• 1994- HP partnered with Intel in developing the 64-bit microprocessor, produced the brightest LED and introduced the HP OfficeJet personal printer-fax-copier
• 1999- Carly Fiorina became President and CEO
• 2002- The company introduced the nanotechnology; acquired Indigo to enhanced the company's digital publishing capability and merged with Compaq.
• 2004- The company ranked number 11 in the Fortune 500 List. The company's launched plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs and the HP Digital Entertainment Center.
• 2005- HP was named the Most Trusted Privacy Company in the United States and acquired Snapfish, an online photo service company
• 2006- Mark Hurd as named Chairman of the company. HP acquired VoodooPC, a high-end gaming company and the Mercury Interactive Corp., a software company
• 2007- The company introduced the Touch Smart PC, an all in one PC with a touch screen
• 2008- HP acquired the Electronic Data Service (EDS) Corp., a technology service company worth $13.9 billion
• 2009- The company acquired 3Com Corporation, a networking switching, routing and security solutions provider
• 2010- HP acquired Palm Inc.,a smart phone provider and ArcSight, a security and compliance management company
• 2011- Meg Whitman became President and CEO

Business Segments

Hewlett and Packard's business operation is divided into seven segments which include:

1. HP Services (HPS)
2. Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS)
3. Software
4. Personal Systems Group (PSG)
5. Imaging and Printing Group (IPG)
6. HP Financial Services (HPFS)
7. Corporate Investment Services

HP & ICANN

In 2009, HP wrote to ICANN and asked the international internet governing bod to amend its rules regarding domain names. Under ICANN's rules, the two-letter domain names are strictly restricted for country code top level domains (ccTLDs). The company pointed out that the rule put HP in a disadvantage position because it prohibits it from acquiring .hp TLD while its competitors will be able to secure their own branded domain names under the new gTLD program.

In November, 2011, Gary Elliot, vice president for global marketing for HP and Chairman of the Association of National Advertisers, openly said that the company is not interested in applying for a .brand gTLD, in the new program to be launched by ICANN. According to Elliot, the new program is expensive for HP. During an interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Elliot said, "A lot of companies are looking at the same math as we are and saying, Let’s stop this proposal from happening. There’s a tremendous amount of confusion about what this means and what the costs are." An ICANN commentator called Mr Elliot's public stance "disingenuous" since HP is presenting itself against all gTLDs, when their opposition is likely due to the reason that HP simply cannot apply for .hp given the restrictions on two-letter TLDs. Proctor & Gamble (P&G) was in a similar position and made a similar announcement.

Prior to Elliot's statement with Bloomberg, he wrote a commentary citing that the new .brands program of ICANN will cost companies like HP a huge amount of money to protect their trademarks against attacks. He criticized ICANN's new gTLD programs and called the promised benefits not just mere speculation but an outright fantasy. He pointed out that there is no scarcity of domain names and he even mentioned that former ICANN Chairman Esther Dyson held a similar opinion.

Environment & Social Responsibility

One of the corporate objectives of HP which was implemented by its founders in 1957 is, "to meet the obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in the society which generate the environment in which we operate." In 1969, the company updated this objective and emphasized its commitment to helping solve environmental problems, particularly traffic and pollution.

In 1972, HP adopted its own corporate policy to protect the environment and control all types of pollution within its manufacturing facilities. Some of its environmental initiatives include building its own waste water treatment facility in Palo Alto, installation of a solar heating site to reduce electricity consumption and implementation of worldwide recycling program. In 1991, the company adopted and expanded a Health and Environmental Safety Policy. It stopped using ozone depleting chemical in manufacturing its products. In 2003, HP opened an inkjet recycling facility in Germany. In 2008, it collected 3.5 million units of hardware to be refurbished for resale or donation. The company also implemented a Dynamic Smart Cooling Solution capable of saving 45% of data center of cooling costs and as much as 18,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. In 2010, the HP Flexible Data Center was introduced. It is a standard and modular approach to designing and building a data center that is expandable when needed. Its configuration and air-cooled mechanical system is capable of lowering energy and water consumption.Since 1957 until today HP implemented numerous initiatives to help preserve the environment.

Awards & Recognition

Since its establishment, the Hewlett & Packard Company has received numerous awards and notable recognition. Some of these include:

• Yokogawa-Hewlett Packard won the Deming Prize for quality in 1982
• IEEE Corporate Innovations Award in 1989 for the development of a scientific pocket calculator and in 2004 for the thermal inkjet technology.
• IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing Award in 2009 for the development of HP-35 scientific calculator which was introdued by the company in 1972
• China Hewlett-Packard Co. received the 2011 Most Respected Companies in China
• Recognized as Canada's Greenest Employer
• HP Ranked No. 2 at the Newsweek 2011 Green Rankings out of top 500 U.S. companies. It is also included in the Top 15 Global 500 List
• Recognized as one of the Top 12 Green IT Vendors Award for 2010
• Recognized as one of the Most Trusted Companies for Privacy in 2010 by the Ponemon Institute

A complete list of the awards received by HP can be found here.

Controversies

The Boardroom Spy Scandal

In 2006, former HP Chairperson Patricia Dunn and some officials of the company initiated an internal investigation to find out who leaked the details of the board of directors meeting regarding HP's long term strategic plan, which was published by CNET News.com. The private investigation firm hired by the company used pre-texting, a practice used by investigators to impersonate a person of interest to be able to access his or her sensitive information such as telephone records. The issue became controversial when HP Board of Director Tom Perkins resigned from the company because of the mishandling of the internal investigation. In his resignation letter, he emphasized that he was resigning to "protest the questionable ethics and the dubious legality of the chairman's methods" to find out the source of the leak of information. Perkins disclosed his resignation to the public when HP's Chief Legal Counsel ignored his communications regarding his request to amend the company's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing and include the full details of the reasons why he resigned from the company. He also pointed out that the HP's form-8K filed with the SEC on May 22, 2006 was defective and requested the company to file his letter including its attachments with the SEC as mandated by Item 5.02(a)(3)(iii).

HP Board of Director George Keyworth II, who was the source of the leak, resigned while Chairman Patricia Dunn stepped down from her position but remained a member of the Board. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal charges against former Chairman Patricia Dunn, Kevin Hunsaker, former HP chief legal counsel, Ronald DeLia, private detective, Joseph DePante, owner of Action Research Group and Brian Wagner, employee of the Action Research Group. The felony charges include fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit the crimes. Dunn pleaded not guilty on the charges filed against her.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission also conducted a formal investigation regarding HP's leak investigation. The House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee also conducted an investigation and questioned Dunn regarding the pre-texting scandal. During the Congress inquiry, Dunn said that she didn't know that pre-texting is illegal and involved misrepresentation of identity.

In 2007, the court dismissed the charges filed against her in connection with the boardroom spy scandal while Hunsaker, DeLia and DePante were found guilty of one count of fraudulent wire communications and were ordered to complete 96 hours of community service. The case filed against them was to be dismissed after completion of the community service.

Attorney General Lockyer also planned to file a civil charges against HP in connection with the spy scandal, however the company made an out of court settlement with the Attorney General's Office. HP agreed to pay $14.5 million. According to the Attorney General HP also agreed to adopt corporate governance reforms and to provide funding for the enactment of a new law to fight violations of privacy and intellectual-property rights.

Lawsuit Againt Oracle

On June 15, 2011, HP filed a civil case against Oracle in the Superior Court of California. The company alleged that Oracle violated its legal agreement when it decided to discontinue its support to develop the Itanium. HP claimed that Oracle had legal obligations to HP and to more than 140,000 customers using the Itanium platform. In its lawsuit, HP asked the court to compel Oracle to change its decision and to fulfill its legal obligation. Oracle denied HP's allegations and described the lawsuit as malicious and meritless. Oracle explained that although HP asked Oracle to guarantee its long-term commitment to Itanium, It refused the proposal. Oracle emphasized that guaranteed long-term support of HP's Itanium was not stipulated in their signed final agreement from September, 2010.