The story
Founded by Hewlett-Packard on Nov 1, 2015, in Palo Alto.1
As Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who both graduated with degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company started off in the HP Garage in Palo Alto, California.
In March 2015, HP announced that Bang & Olufsen would become the company's new premium audio partner for its computers and other devices. This replaced the partnership with Beats Electronics that ended upon being acquired by Apple Inc. in 2014.
On November 1, 2015, Hewlett-Packard was split into two companies. Its personal computer and printer businesses became HP Inc., while its enterprise business became Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The split was structured so that Hewlett-Packard changed its name to HP Inc. and spun off Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a new publicly traded company. HP Inc. retains Hewlett-Packard's pre-2015 stock price history and its former stock ticker symbol, HPQ, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise trades under its own symbol, HPE.
As HP Inc.
In May 2016, HP introduced a new PC gaming sub-brand known as Omen (reusing trademarks associated with VoodooPC), including gaming laptops and desktops (with the latter offering options such as CPU water cooling and Nvidia's GTX 1080 graphics, and promoted as VR-ready), and other accessories (such as monitors) designed to cater to the market. Between May and August of that year, certain assets were sold to OpenText, including TeamSite and Exstream.
In November 2017, HP acquired Samsung Electronics' printer division for $1.05 billion.
In February 2021, HP announced its acquisition of Kingston's gaming division HyperX for $425 million. The deal only includes computer peripherals branded as HyperX, not memory or storage. The sale was completed in June 2021.
In February 2022, HP announced it had acquired the Edinburgh-based packaging development company, Choose Packaging, in an effort to strengthen its capabilities in the sustainable packaging vertical.
In March 2022, HP announced the acquisition of the California-headquartered communications software and hardware provider Poly Inc. in an all-cash transaction. HP said the cash amount agreed was $40 per share, which implied a total enterprise value of $3.3bn, inclusive Poly's net debts.
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In May 2024, HP announced its intentions on restructuring its lineup of consumer PCs in preparation for the next generation of computers with artificial intelligence, stating that most of its PC models (except Omen) would adopt a new branding nomenclature under the new Omni brand, which consisted of the OmniBook (a revival of an old brand that was defunct in 2002 after acquiring Compaq that year), OmniStudio and OmniDesk models. The Omni brand of computers features AI-powered hardware and software, coexisting with HP's other offerings as of 2025.
In February 2025, HP announced it would acquire key artificial intelligence assets from Humane for approximately $116 million, including its Cosmos AI platform, intellectual property with more than 300 patents and patent applications, and much of Humane's engineering team. As part of the deal, Humane discontinued its AI Pin wearable device. HP stated that the acquisition would accelerate development of AI-powered experiences across its PCs, printers, and collaboration products.
In March 2026, HP introduced HP IQ, an AI software platform designed to connect HP AI PCs, printers, meeting-room devices, and workplace hardware through local AI processing and proximity-based connectivity. The platform was announced during HP Imagine 2026 as part of the company's broader AI ecosystem strategy.
Attempted merger with Xerox
On November 5, 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that print and digital document company Xerox was contemplating acquiring HP. The company unanimously rejected two unsolicited offers, including a cash-and-stock offer at $22 per-share. HP stated that there was "uncertainty regarding Xerox's ability to raise the cash portion of the proposed consideration" (especially given that Xerox is a smaller company in terms of market cap than HP), and noted the company's aggressiveness. On November 26, 2019, Xerox issued a public letter defending allegations by HP that its offer was "uncertain" and "highly conditional", and declared its intent to "engage directly with HP shareholders to solicit their support in urging the HP Board to do the right thing and pursue this compelling opportunity."
Xerox stated in January 2020 that it would propose the replacement of HP's board of directors during its next shareholder meeting in April 2020. In a statement to TechCrunch, HP disclosed a belief that Xerox's bid was being "driven by" activist shareholder Carl Icahn. Xerox raised its bid to $24 per-share in February 2020.
On February 21, 2020, HP instituted a shareholder rights plan to fend off Xerox's pursuit of a hostile takeover. Four days later, HP announced that, if shareholders rejected the Xerox purchase, it planned on offering $16 billion in capital return between fiscal 2020 and 2022, including $8 billion in additional share buybacks and raising its "target long-term return of capital to 100% of free cash flow generation". HP criticized Xerox's bid as a "flawed value exchange" based on "overstated synergies". On March 5, 2020, HP rejected an offer at $24 per-share.
On March 31, 2020, Xerox rescinded its bid to buy HP Inc, citing that "the current global health crisis and resulting macroeconomic and market turmoil" had "created an environment that is not conducive to Xerox continuing to pursue an acquisition of HP Inc."
From Wikipedia’s article on HP Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.9