Hewlett-Packard: Planet-Wide Patterns in the Company’s Technology Tapestry

Abstract

“The character of our company is basically set by the character of its R&D work.” (Bill Hewlett). William Hewlett and David Packard founded HP in 1939 while working out of a one-car garage behind 367 Addison Avenue — today a California State Historical landmark and a Silicon Valley cornerstone. The company’s first product, an electronic test instrument known as an audio oscillator, was built in a Palo Alto garage. The oscillator improved upon existing audio oscillators in size, price and performance. One of HP’s first customers, Walt Disney Studios, purchased eight oscillators to develop and test an innovative sound system for the classic movie „Fantasia.“ HP incorporated in 1947 and ten years later made its first public stock offering. HP shares have been traded on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges since 1961. Today, about 92,000 shareholders hold slightly more than one billion shares of stock.

Her sincere thanks go to countless HP webpage authors simply identified as „webmaster” everywhere, and Dewey Baker, Steve Bicker, John Birk, Herb Blomquist, Janice Bradford, Jason Brown, Carolyn Brown, Bill Buffington, Tara Bunch, Leigh Cagan, Jeremy Carroll, Sharon Connor, James Conway, Hoyle Curtis, Margaret Day, Anna Durante, Kathe Gust, Florence Haas, Rob Hamilton, Susanne Helmer, Pamela Hines, George Hopkins, Jim Homer, Toshino Ichino, Rhonda Kirk, Chuck Leath, Daisy Lee, Swee-Kwang Lim, Gerhard Lindemann, Partricia Markee, Hans Mattes, Emily Mathews, Bill McFarland, Rich Marconi, Akihiro Morioka, Richard Moss, Roberto Mottola, Walter Nash, Steve Paolini, My Phan, Eugenie Prime, Cheryl Ritchie, Sylvain Sadier, Bern Shen, Jim Shunk, Polly Siegel, Bess Stephens, Morgan Stewart, Hans Stork, Jim Sullivan, Sally Swedburg, Ju-en Teng, Jeremy Theil, Pat Vinton, Liz Vugrinecz, Tomio Wakasugi, Barbara Waugh, Barry Willis, Hazen Witemeyer, and Al Yuen.