Hewlett-Packard Company (1939–2015)
Hewlett-Packard Company was a multinational information technology corporation founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in a Palo Alto, California garage. Prior to its separation, the company was a global leader in a wide variety of hardware and software. In a landmark corporate split on November 1, 2015, the original Hewlett-Packard Company was divided into two distinct, publicly traded entities: HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The former Hewlett-Packard Company was renamed HP Inc., which is its legal successor, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise was spun off as a new company.
Before the 2015 split, Hewlett-Packard's extensive product lines included personal computers, printers, enterprise servers, data storage devices, networking equipment, and IT services. Following the separation, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) retained the personal computer and printer businesses and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), now headquartered in Spring, Texas, focuses on enterprise products and services, including servers, storage, networking, cloud solutions, and IT consulting.
As a major technology hardware and services provider, the historic Hewlett-Packard Company was an operating company frequently targeted in patent disputes. The provided data shows the company as a defendant in the single tracked case from 2013, consistent with the typical litigation posture of a large-scale technology manufacturer defending against patent assertions. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, a venue historically popular with patent plaintiffs.
The 2015 corporate separation is the most significant event in the company's recent history, effectively creating two more focused Fortune 100 companies from the original entity. The tracked litigation, Sampo IP, LLC v. ETrade Financial Corporate Services Inc. et al.*, occurred before this split and named the unified Hewlett-Packard Company as a defendant. Any liabilities from litigation pre-dating the split are now generally handled by HP Inc. as the legal successor.