The garage, the oscillator and the split: how HP’s original company became a PC and printing specialist
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto in 1939 after studying together at Stanford, working initially from a rented garage.
One of HP’s first successful products was the 200A audio oscillator, famously sold to Walt Disney Studios for work on the film Fantasia.
The important part of this history is the sequence. Each major step gave HP another layer of capability, and later products or markets often depended on work that began years earlier.
Electronic instruments built Silicon Valley’s archetypal garage company
HP expanded from test equipment into a broad range of electronic instruments and developed a management culture that became known as the HP Way.
This was an important turning point because it expanded what HP could offer or the markets it could address. The effect becomes clearer when viewed as part of the longer sequence of changes that followed.
Calculators and computers moved the company into information technology
HP entered scientific calculators, minicomputers, printers and personal computers, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest computing companies.
This was an important turning point because it expanded what HP could offer or the markets it could address. The effect becomes clearer when viewed as part of the longer sequence of changes that followed.
Agilent carried the original instrument business away in 1999
HP spun off test-and-measurement and related operations as Agilent Technologies, leaving the parent increasingly focused on computing and printing.
This was an important turning point because it expanded what HP could offer or the markets it could address. The effect becomes clearer when viewed as part of the longer sequence of changes that followed.
The 2015 split created HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HP separated its PC and printer operations into HP Inc. while enterprise servers, storage, networking and services became Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Infrastructure businesses are judged by reliability, scale and the cost of moving information. This milestone increased the company’s relevance as digital services became more distributed and more dependent on high-capacity connections.
The original HP became one branch of its own family tree
As of 18 September 2026, hP Inc. now concentrates on personal systems, printing and related services. The company carrying the HP name is therefore only one branch of a corporate family tree whose original measurement business lives on through Keysight and whose enterprise operations became HPE.
For readers following the brand today, the history explains why newer announcements often connect back to technology or business decisions made much earlier.
For TechnologyBlog.co.za, this page is intended to serve as the company-history cornerstone for future HP coverage, so product and company-news articles can link back to one factual brand background instead of repeating the full origin story.
Primary sources checked include HP’s official company history and 2015 separation materials. Information reflects public material available on 18 September 2026. Official company identity cross-checked against http://www8.hp.com.
