Hewlett Packard

Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. will buy 3Com Corp. for $2.7 billion to challenge Cisco Systems Inc. in the computer- networking market. Hewlett-Packard will pay $7.90 a share in cash for 3Com, 39% more than 3Com's closing price today, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard said. Chief Executive Mark Hurd is seeking to add to Hewlett-Packard's $118 billion in annual sales after the sharpest slump in personal-computer demand in history. The purchase of 3Com increases competition with Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment, which is also expanding into Hewlett-Packard's businesses.

Hewlett-Packard Co., battered by declining profits and tech rivals with flashier hand-held devices, is slashing 27,000 jobs, or 8% of its workforce. The Silicon Valley tech firm, one of the world's largest computer makers with nearly 325,000 employees, said the job reductions - through layoffs and a voluntary early retirement program - would occur by the end of fiscal 2014. The cuts are expected to save the company $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually. "Workforce reductions are never easy," Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a call with analysts.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest PC and printer maker, said it's cooperating with Russian and German authorities after its Moscow offices were searched Wednesday in a possible bribery investigation. German prosecutors are investigating possible corruption linked to its 35 million euro ($47.5 million) sale of computers to Russia about seven years ago. They are examining whether the company paid bribes to win the contract, said Wolfgang Klein, a spokesman at Saxony's Chief Prosecutor's Office.

Information technology firm Hewlett-PackardCo.renewed its lease of an entire building in El Segundo, real estate brokers said. The 47,576-square-foot building at 621 Hawaii St. is the regional office of Palo Alto computer maker Hewlett-Packard, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle. The landlord is Asset Management Consultants Inc. of Mission Hills. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but experts familiar with the South Bay real estate market valued it at about $6 million.

Hewlett-Packard Co.  will combine its PC and printing units into one business as the tech giant looks to improve its performance. The new Printing and Personal Systems Group will be led by Todd Bradley, who has been executive vice president of the company's PC business since 2005, the company said Wednesday. As expected, Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group, will retire after 31 years at the Palo Alto company. HP said combining the two units would improve its market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support.

Federal regulators are looking into whether Hewlett-Packard Co. employees bribed foreign officials in exchange for business abroad, HP confirmed Thursday. The Palo Alto-based computer giant said it was cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other law enforcement officials investigating the matter in Germany and Russia. The company's comments came in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report that HP's Moscow offices had been searched as part of the bribery investigation.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal computer maker, reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and sales that beat analysts' estimates. Net income in the quarter ended April 30 rose 28% to $2.2 billion, or 91 cents a share, from $1.72 billion, or 71 cents, a year earlier, the Palo Alto company said Tuesday. Excluding some costs, profit was $1.09 a share. That compared with the $1.06 average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 13% to $30.8 billion. Analysts projected $29.8 billion.

Hewlett-Packard Co. reported a profit of $2.5 billion, or $1.10 a share, an increase of about 5% from a year earlier for a fourth quarter in which the tech giant was running largely without a chief executive. The Palo Alto company said it generated about $33.3 billion in sales during the three-month period ended Oct. 31, an increase of about 8% from a year earlier. The earnings report, issued Monday after markets closed, was rosier than analysts had predicted. HP's new chief executive, Leo Apotheker ?

Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter is usually credited with using the term "creative destruction" to describe how capitalism evolves by supplanting the old with the new. But it's a fair bet that Schumpeter never could have imagined how creatively Hewlett-Packard Co. has managed its own destruction. Arguably the founding engineering firm of Silicon Valley when it was created by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939, HP has been on a more than decade-long stumble dating back to before the appointment of the glamorous Carly Fiorina as chief executive in 1999.

Question: I am concerned about the leadership turmoil at Hewlett-Packard Co. affecting my stock. What is your opinion of it? Answer: More important than the drama surrounding this computer hardware giant is its expansion into database and business application software. Hewlett-Packard is in fine financial condition, with plenty of cash and manageable debt. But to adapt to changing times, the firm intends to concentrate on four areas, with so-called enterprise software joining printers, personal computers and technology services.

Hewlett-Packard Co.  will combine its PC and printing units into one business as the tech giant looks to improve its performance. The new Printing and Personal Systems Group will be led by Todd Bradley, who has been executive vice president of the company's PC business since 2005, the company said Wednesday. As expected, Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group, will retire after 31 years at the Palo Alto company. HP said combining the two units would improve its market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support.

Hewlett-Packard Co. reported a 44% decline in first-quarter profit and its revenue missed expectations, underscoring the tech giant's ongoing challenges as it works to get back on track under Chief Executive Meg Whitman. For its fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 31, the Palo Alto company reported revenue of $30 billion, down 7% from $32.3 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $30.7 billion. Profit was $1.5 billion, or 73 cents a share, down from $2.6 billion, or $1.17, a year earlier.

A letter detailing allegations of sexual harassment against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Mark V. Hurd is renewing interest in the year-old scandal but is not expected to hurt his position at Oracle Corp. The content of the June 2010 letter, which eventually led to Hurd's ouster from HP, was disclosed Thursday after a federal judge in Delaware ruled that releasing the letter would not violate Hurd's privacy rights. Prepared by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, the letter chronicles Hurd's alleged efforts to woo Jodie Fisher, an event hostess and actress.

Patricia Dunn, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman whose role in an explosive corporate spying scandal overshadowed her storybook rise from temporary secretary to one of corporate America's most powerful women, has died. She was 58. Dunn, who had battled ovarian cancer for nearly eight years, died Sunday morning at her home in Orinda, Calif. Her death was confirmed by Hewlett-Packard spokesman Michael Thacker. Dunn dropped out of the public spotlight since resigning as outside chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard in September 2006 amid a media firestorm that she had approved a surveillance and sting operation to plug board-level leaks about one of the world's largest technology companies.

IBM Corp. has unexpectedly changed CEOs. That ends speculation that Sam Palmisano, who turned 60 this year, would stay on past the traditional age of retirement for the technology company's captains. Palmisano, who has been chief executive for nearly a decade and is staying on as chairman, is being replaced by IBM's first female CEO, Virginia "Ginni" Rometty. She is in charge of IBM's sales and marketing and has long been whispered about by industry watchers as Palmisano's likely heir.

Meg Whitman is taking a $1 annual salary for her position as the new chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. But don't think she's working for peanuts. As part of her compensation package, Whitman was also awarded options to buy nearly 2 million shares of HP stock at $23.59, close to Friday's opening price, which eventually could bring her a windfall of tens of millions of dollars if HP's stock price rises. But as with many executive-level packages, the options won't vest immediately: Whitman won't be able to cash in at least 900,000 of them until a year from now. The vesting of the options is also tied to the performance of the stock: If HP's stock doesn't achieve certain levels of growth during her tenure, in other words, Whitman can't use them.

Hewlett-Packard Co. — the computer maker rocked by financial missteps, corporate espionage and allegations of sexual harassment in the executive suite — has placed its fate in the hands of an unlikely savior. Meg Whitman. The California GOP gubernatorial candidate and one-woman powerhouse who transformed EBay Inc. into a Web giant has been tapped to lead the Silicon Valley titan back to health and hopefully put an end to a decade of corporate dysfunction. It's going to be a herculean task others have repeatedly failed to achieve.

Without its star executive, Hewlett-Packard Co. was left rudderless Monday, its stock foundering, its future uncertain and some investors questioning whether the ouster was necessary at all. Just days after the world's largest computer maker ejected Chief Executive Mark Hurd, investors and analysts began asking if the company's directors acted rashly. In his five years at the helm, Hurd had overseen a near-doubling of HP's market value to $100 billion. After plunging almost 10% — and wiping out nearly $10 billion in value — in late trading Friday, HP shares failed to regain much ground Monday as investors remained anxious about the leadership vacuum.

Hewlett-Packard Co. investors greeted the company's new chief executive with the Wall Street equivalent of a stocking full of coal. On Meg Whitman's first full day as CEO, the company's stock hit a six-year low. The drop, which sent the stock to its lowest price since May 2005, reflected investors' continued doubts about Whitman's fitness to run the global computing giant. The stock later rebounded somewhat to close down 2.1%, or 48 cents, at $22.32. In a conference call Thursday with Whitman and HP Chairman Raymond J. Lane, investors repeatedly asked whether HP's board had hired Whitman too hastily.