Many current technology companies, large and small, boast of having started their journey a few years ago in small attics, rooms, or garages in the United States. However, they have not been the first to do so. Companies that have become true technology giants already did so in the first half of the last century. One of them is HP, and it is perhaps the most famous of the big ones that started their activity in a garage of a house in Silicon Valley.
The one that would eventually become one of the world's leading manufacturers and sellers of computers, among other computers, was born in Palo Alto, California, in 1939. William Redington Hewlett and Dave Packard, two fellow students at the university, founded it from Stanford. Hence its name, Hewlett Packard (HP). Nevertheless, its first commercialized product was not a computer but an acoustic oscillator because, in the beginning, its creators were dedicated to the manufacture of laboratory and measuring instruments. His first customer was the Walt Disney studio, which bought eight oscilloscopes.
During World War II, the company was dedicated to the manufacture of products for military use. Later, Packard specialized in business development, while Hewlett handled research and development. Moreover, moving forward little by little, almost 20 years after its birth, in 1957, the company went public. Since 1961, it has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and in 1962, it was already ranked 460 on the Fortune 500 list. Expansion to other markets soon came, and by 1963, its products were already marketed even in Asia. In 1964, Dave Packard was elected its CEO and Chairman of the Board, while William Hewlett was appointed its Chairman.
Calculators, a new line of business
Parallel to its rise as a laboratory and testing equipment manufacturer, the company began a journey in 1968 in another business segment that it has not abandoned since electronic calculators. The first models, very simple, would be followed in the decade of the 70 more complex models. In 1972 saw the light the model HP-35, the first handheld scientific model HP. Also, your first pocket calculator.
Great advances in the sector would follow, such as the world's first programmable handheld calculator, launched by HP in 1975 (HP-6), and the first expandable alphanumeric handheld, the HP-41C, arrived in 1979. It would have had to wait until 1987 for the world's first model capable of solving equations in a symbolic way to see the light: the HP-28C.
Today, HP continues to manufacture all types of calculators, from the simplest for schoolchildren to programmable models with a colour screen that are true handheld computers and are true lifesavers for students and professionals involved in many scientific and technical careers.
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Computers and printers arrive
The first computer made by HP, the 2116A, arrived in 1966. It was the first computer in the HP 1000 series, and it was designed for internal company use. Specifically, to analyze the data produced by HP equipment. This series of equipment was used for machine, process monitoring, and control applications. It would not be until 1972 when the company decided to launch its computers. He did it with the 3000 series. The company's first workstation, the HP 9000, arrived in 1982.
Soon after came the first HP personal computer, the Touchscreen 150. It had the MS-DOS operating system, and it was not very popular. Things began to change with his Vectra equipment, already based on the 286 architecture. This computer was the first of a family of PCs that were compatible with IBM.
In 1986, the company modified the internal design of its 3000 and 9000 series computers to introduce its HP Precision Architecture, which makes HP computers significantly better performance. Meanwhile, another line of business was opening up in the company: printers. The first, the LaserJet, arrived in 1984 and was intended for offices.
The purchase of Apollo Computer in 1989 was a before and after in the company's computer division. This company's line of equipment, combined with that of HP, made the company the leader in workstations. By then, HP is already a leader in many electronics and computing industries. In addition, it has a very good reputation thanks to the reliability of the equipment.
While all this was going on, the company grew nonstop. His increasingly numerous staff soon began to benefit from his good performance, as he soon began to enjoy various rights unthinkable in the United States. For example, it was the first company to implement flexible hours policies for its workers. It was an initiative designed to help them reconcile work and family life and was established in 1973.
The 90s of the last century were a transitional period for the company. In 1993 Dave Packard stepped down as president, in which he was replaced by Lew Platt. In 1993, HP launched the Omnibook 300 laptop, which stood out for having a battery that already gave it some autonomy. In 1994 the company introduced its first multifunction. And already in 2001, HP's services division arrived, in charge of providing consulting and outsourcing services, among other solutions.
As HP has grown, it has diversified the amount of equipment it manufactures, including computers, servers, storage devices, network equipment, printers, and imaging devices. It has grown into such a large company that its employees number in the hundreds of thousands around the world.
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Purchases and changes
In 2002 came the largest purchase of a company by HP to date. In that year, it merged with Compaq, an operation not without controversy, after paying 20,000 million dollars. A fairly large number of HP shareholders of some size opposed the operation publicly. Among them, Walter Hewlett, one of its founders. But they had nothing to do. The merger took place, and Michael Capellas, Compaq CEO, served as HP's president for a few months.
Carly Fiorina, who led the company for three years, replaced his departure. In that time, HP laid off thousands of Compaq employees and began losing market share to Dell, precipitating Fiorina's exit in 2005. His replacement was Mark Hurd. After a relatively uneventful recovery season, HP bought network products maker 3Com for $2.7 billion in 2009, intending to strengthen its communications division.
In 2010, HP entered the PDA and mobile phone business by purchasing Palm Inc, which also marked its entry into the programmable PDA market. This operation also led to it becoming the owner of the WebOS operating system, which would finally be released years later with an open-source license. In 2010, HP bought the storage system provider 3PAR, and in 2011 HP introduced the industry's first wireless mouse.
That same year 2011, in September, Meg Whitman came to the company as CEO and President. He was taking over from Leo Apotheker, who in turn had replaced Hurd the year before. During his tenure, the company's first Android tablets were launched, arriving in 2013. Its division into two would also arrive in 2015, rumors that already began to be encouraged in mid-2011 when Apotheker announced several changes in the company.
To begin with, it then stopped making smartphones. It was also made public that creating a separate company from its PC division was being considered. Thus, HP would focus only on business software and services. Ultimately, this division was not carried out. Still, HP had already become a gigantic company, which decided to separate in 2015 into two: HP Inc., which was left with personal computers and printers, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, dedicated to the development and commercialization of products and services for companies.
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