The Hewlett-Packard Company (commonly referred to as HP) or shortened to Hewlett-Packard (hew-lit pack-erd) was an American multinational information technology company   headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components as well as software and related services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors.