HP (Hewlett-Packard)

HP (Hewlett-Packard) is the company Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started in Palo Alto, California. According to HP's records, in September 1938 Dave Packard and his wife moved into the ground-floor apartment at 367 Addison Avenue and Bill Hewlett into a shed at the back, and the two began part-time work in the garage with $538 in working capital, made up of cash and a used drill press. Their first product was an audio oscillator. They formalised their partnership on 1 January 1939 and decided the company's name with a coin toss. Having outgrown the garage, they moved to a rented building on Page Mill Road in 1940. The garage became California Registered Landmark No. 976 in 1987 and was dedicated as the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" in 1989.

Two companies carry the HP name today. The original Hewlett-Packard Company continues as HP Inc., which makes PCs and printers, while the enterprise businesses were separated in 2015 as Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). This page covers that lineage and the shape of both successors.

From the garage to two companies

HP itself calls the HP-35 the world's first handheld scientific calculator. The IEEE Milestone citation notes that most contemporary calculators could perform only the four basic operations, whereas the HP-35 handled trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions to ten-digit precision and, with its successors, replaced the engineer's slide rule.

The two successors

The terms of the separation extend to the name itself. According to HP Inc.'s annual report on Form 10-K, a joint brand-holding structure lets HPE keep using variations of the legacy Hewlett-Packard name and HP Inc. variations of the HP brand. The same report warns that, because this shared use continues, conduct or events that damage HPE's reputation could also damage HP Inc.'s.

The shape of HP Inc.

HP Inc.'s 10-K reports three segments: Personal Systems (mainly PCs), Printing and Corporate Investments. Net revenue by business unit, in US$ millions:

Revenue and profit point in opposite directions. Of US$5,042 million in total segment earnings from operations for fiscal 2025, Printing earned US$3,118 million and Personal Systems US$2,054 million, while Corporate Investments lost US$130 million. Printing brings in about 30% of revenue yet out-earns Personal Systems. Supplies account for nearly two-thirds of Printing revenue, and they declined in both of the last two years in the table.

Key events

• 1938: Hewlett and Packard begin part-time work in a Palo Alto garage.
• 1 January 1939: The partnership is formalised.
• 1940: Move to a rented building on Page Mill Road.
• 1972: The HP-35 scientific calculator is introduced.
• 1987: The garage becomes a California state landmark.
• 3 May 2002: The Compaq merger closes.
• 14 April 2009: The HP-35 is dedicated as an IEEE Milestone.
• 1 November 2015: Hewlett Packard Enterprise is separated.

Financial indicators

HP Inc., fiscal year ended 31 October 2025 (November 2024 to October 2025, US GAAP), from the 10-K.

• Net revenue: US$55,295 million (prior year US$53,559 million)
• Net earnings: US$2,529 million (prior year US$2,775 million)
• Research and development: US$1,602 million
• Net revenue by region: Americas US$23,545 million; Europe, Middle East and Africa US$18,596 million; Asia-Pacific and Japan US$13,154 million
• Employees: about 55,000

The two men in the garage started with an audio oscillator. Today the largest share of revenue under the HP name comes from PCs, and the largest share of profit from printer supplies. Having absorbed Compaq and let the enterprise side go its own way, HP Inc. became a company of machines that sit on desks at home and at work.