How HP became the world's largest tech company

The search is on for what investors hope is a visionary helmsman to ignite growth at Hewlett-Packard Co.

Here is a look back at the history of HP, which grew from a garage in Palo Alto, California, to become the world's largest technology company by revenue.

1939: Stanford electrical engineers Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard found the company out of a Palo Alto garage with $538 and a Sears-Roebuck drill press. They decide whose name would go first with a coin toss.

Revenue is $5,369 after one year. Their first product is the resistance-capacitance audio oscillator, a version of which was sold to the Walt Disney Co.

1940: HP pays its first bonus to employees - a $5 Christmas windfall. In the 1940s, it begins to benefit from US orders for electronics with the onset of World War Two and growing acceptance for its products in the engineering and scientific community.

Text: Reuters | Images: Wikimedia Commons

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