HP is not a new name in the IT business, and its history dates back over 80 years. In January 1939, two Stanford graduates, Bill Hewlett and David Packard formed the corporation.

During their time as students at Stanford, the two co-founders met at a casual event. Both were studying electrical engineering and had the same desire to launch a business once they finished their studies. They discussed their idea with their Stanford fellowship lecturer Frederick Terman and began working on it under his supervision.

In 1938, the two launched their company from Packard's garage in Palo Alto, with an initial cash commitment of $538 and no firm name in mind. In 1939, they flipped a coin to choose the name of the corporation, which would bear their surname. Hewlett-Packard and Packard-Hewlett competed in a coin toss, with Hewlett-Packard winning.

The Model HP200A precision audio oscillator was the company's first product. It was inexpensive and effective, and it became one of the most commercially successful products. Walt Disney Productions utilized the same equipment to certify the Fantasound surround sound systems deployed in theaters for the film Fantasia.

The company went public in an initial public offering in 1957.

Hewlett-Packard began manufacturing semiconductor devices for instrumentation and calculators in the 1960s. In 1966, the company began a new business of computer production, releasing the HP 2100 / HP 1000 series of minicomputers with an accumulator-based design, followed by the HP 9800 and HP 250 series of desktop and business computers.

The company began creating powerful business computers, such as stack-based HP 3000 computers, in the 1970s. At the same time, HP debuted the 2640 series of smart computers, which featured one of the first bit-mapped graphical displays. By linking the HP 2100 21MX F-Series micro-coded Scientific Instruction Set to the same computer, the first commercial WYSIWYG Presentation Program, BRUNO, was developed.

During the same decade, the company released the HP-35, the world's first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-65, the first alphanumeric, programmable, expandable HP-41C, and the first symbolic, as well as the graphing calculator HP-28C.

Hewlett-Packard expanded its business in the 1980s to include desktop printers and scanners. With the rise of the internet, the business registered HP.com as its website name on March 3, 1986, making it the ninth .com domain ever registered. HP purchased the Apollo Computer in 1989 and the Convex Computers in 1995.

By 1998, the company had established itself as a market leader in desktops, laptops, and servers for a variety of markets. Later, it launched hpshopping.com to offer its items online, which was later rebranded as "HP Home & Home Office Store" in 2005.

Hewlett-Packard was experiencing significant commercial losses in 2005 as a result of the merger with Compaq. In 2006, the company introduced a new line of hardware and software products that cut expenses. In 2007, the company's revenues soared, and it became the first company to reach the $100 billion barrier.

Hewlett-Packard released its first tablet, the HP TouchPad, in 2011, followed by the first wireless mouse in the industry. However, at the end of the year, it declared that it would no longer be in the tablet and smartphone market, instead of focusing on Cloud, solutions, and software.

Hewlett-profits Packard's fell dramatically between 2012 and 2013, while the company shed 34000 workers during the same period.

Hewlett Packard announced in October 2014 that it would be separated into two distinct entities. Personal computers and printer manufacturing would be handled by the two wings separately. Finally, in November 2015, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise were formed, with HP Inc. keeping Hewlett-stock Packard's price history.

Despite experiencing many ups and downs throughout the course of its long history, HP has brought the world many remarkable ideas. The firm is also credited with numerous patents and will be remembered for its contributions to the IT industry.