Hewlett Packard

A former Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president who once worked for IBM Corp. pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Jose to trade- secret theft. Atul Malhotra received e-mails marked "IBM confidential" when he was a director of sales at that company. He sent the contents of the e-mails to two senior vice presidents at Hewlett-Packard two to three months after he was hired in 2006 at the Palo Alto-based company. Malhotra, of Santa Barbara, faces 10 years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's third-largest personal computer maker, said it will build a PC manufacturing plant in the Netherlands to take advantage of the country's excellent infrastructure and access to principal European markets. The new facility will employ about 600 people. Cost and exact location of the new plant were not disclosed. The Palo Alto-based company has a printer plant in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. Hewlett-Packard shares closed up 88 cents at $70.

Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that director George Keyworth had leaked information on board deliberations to the media before the ouster of Chief Executive Carly Fiorina in February 2005 and that he wouldn't be renominated. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn began investigating boardroom leaks after Fiorina was fired and will provide details in a regulatory filing today, said Ryan Donovan, a spokesman for the Palo Alto-based company.

Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to enter the growing market for pint-size computers targeted mainly to pint-size customers, introducing an ultra-portable PC it says is smaller than some textbooks and priced to appeal to schools. The Mini-Note weighs 2.63 pounds and has an 8.9-inch screen and an almost full-size keyboard, Hewlett-Packard said. Prices start at $499 for a model with Linux operating system software and $599 with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. Hewlett-Packard gets more than half its PC revenue from notebook machines.

Carly Fiorina Political party: Republican Occupation: Former business executive Age: 55, born in Austin, Texas City of residence: Los Altos Hills and Washington, D.C. Personal: Husband Frank Fiorina; two stepdaughters (one deceased), two granddaughters Education: Bachelor's degree in history, Stanford University; MBA, University of Maryland; M.S., Sloan School of Management, MIT Career highlights: Senior executive, AT&T and its 1996 spinoff Lucent Technologies 1980-1999; chief executive officer and president, Hewlett-Packard, 1999-2005; chairman, Hewlett-Packard, 2000-2005.

Warning that it sees no end to the computer industry slump, Hewlett-Packard on Thursday announced periodic, wide-ranging shutdowns affecting 45,000 employees through October and said extended "holidays" might be ordered for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. The Palo Alto-based computer maker said that it will close all facilities except sales offices for one or two days a month and that employees won't be paid for those days.

Hewlett-Packard Co. was ordered by a judge to pay Cornell University $53.5 million for infringing the school's patent for data processing, less than a third the amount decided on by a federal jury in May. The jury had ordered Hewlett-Packard to pay Cornell $184 million after finding that the Palo Alto, Calif., company used Cornell technology to increase the speed of its processors without permission from the university or its research foundation, which claim ownership of the patent.

Political party: Republican Occupation: Former business executive Age: 56, born in Austin, Texas City of residence: Los Altos Hills and Washington, D.C. Personal: Husband Frank Fiorina; two stepdaughters (one deceased), two step-granddaughters Education: Bachelor's degree in history, Stanford University; MBA, University of Maryland; M.S., Sloan School of Management, MIT Career highlights: Senior executive, AT&T and its 1996 spinoff Lucent Technologies 1980-1999; chief executive and president, Hewlett-Packard, 1999-2005; chairman, Hewlett-Packard, 2000-2005.