Hewlett-Packard (HP) was founded in 1939 in Palo Alto, California by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. It is now a multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto. HP began by manufacturing electronic test equipment and later expanded into various other areas including personal computers, printers, and business servers. It has become one of the largest IT companies in the world, with over 300,000 employees serving customers globally.