List of acquisitions by Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard, commonly referred to as HP, was an electronics technology company based in Palo Alto, California. Before its 2015 split into two companies, it was known as a leading developer and manufacturer of personal computers, enterprise servers, storage devices, networking products, software, and a range of printers and other imaging products, as well as a provider of services and consulting. In 2012, HP was the largest technology company in the world in terms of revenue, ranking 10th in the Fortune Global 500.
The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a small garage on January 1, 1939, initially producing a line of electronic test and measurement equipment.
As of 2012, Hewlett-Packard had made a total of 129 acquisitions since 1986;[a] The majority of companies acquired by HP were based in the United States.
Its first acquisition was the FL Moseley Company in 1958. This move enabled HP to enter the plotter market, the precursor to its leading role in the printer business. In 1989, HP purchased Apollo Computer for US$476 million, enabling HP to become the largest supplier of computer workstations. In 1995, the company bought another computer manufacturer, Convex Computer, for $150 million. In 2000, HP spun off its early measurement, chemical and medical businesses into an independent company named Agilent Technologies. The company's largest acquisition came in 2002, when it merged with Compaq, a personal computer manufacturer, for $25 billion. The combined company overtook Dell for the largest share of the personal computer market worldwide in the second quarter. Their last pre-split acquisition in the enterprise networking segment was Aruba Networks in March 2015 for $3 billion.
Within IT networking hardware and storage market segments, HP made acquisitions worth over $15 billion, including the 3PAR and 3COM acquisitions made in 2010, totaling over $5 billion. Its largest IT services and consulting acquisition was Electronic Data Systems in 2008 for $13.9 billion.
In the software products market segment, a stream of acquisitions helped strengthen HP's position. The largest software company purchased prior to 2011 was Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion. This acquisition doubled the size of HP's software business to more than $2 billion in annual revenue.
In 2012 and 2013, HP had no acquisitions in any of its business segments as the firm was dealing with the aftermath of an $8.8 billion write-off, suffered as a result of its acquisition of British software company Autonomy Corporation for $11 billion in 2011. In 2014, HP returned to the acquisition market by acquiring computer networking software company Shunra.
On October 6, 2014, HP announced that it would split into two companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. The former focuses on enterprise infrastructure hardware, software and services, whilst the latter focuses on consumer markets with PCs and printers. On November 1, 2015, they became separate companies.