News release

HP Broadens Product Reach on the Internet, Enabling Selected Portals and Business-to-Business Web Sites Across Europe to Sell HP Business Products

GENEVA, Oct. 2, 2000

HP Europe today announced an affiliate program enabling business-to-business Web sites across Europe to sell HP business products. HP is making its business product catalog available to affiliate B2B Web sites, allowing them to easily and quickly set up an HP Store on their portal or Web site. The program, which delivers a percentage commission to the affiliate sites for all HP product sales they generate, will launch in the U.K. and France, and will be extended to other countries where HP already sells direct to business customers over the Web, such as Germany and Sweden.

While HP already has a very strong online presence for its business products and has strong relationships with major Internet companies such as Yahoo! and Excite, this is the first time that HP is extending HP business product sales over the Web to a wider range of Internet businesses.

Under the program, affiliate sites can offer HP's wide range of products, from PCs to handhelds to printers, and, with HP providing product delivery and after care, they also are able to offer their customers a value-added service at no extra cost. The program runs on iMediation software, which enables business partners to collaboratively sell products and services online, while managing their brands and complex sales, marketing and distribution relationships.

"For portals and B2B sites, the affiliate program is a great opportunity to bring increased value to customers and to expand revenue streams," said Ted Speroni, e-business manager for HP Europe. "For HP, the affiliate program brings us closer to our customers and advances our strategy to lead in the Internet economy."

HP will be applying strict criteria to its selection process, ensuring that partners meet high standards in ethics, technology and usability.

"We expect there'll be high demand for participation in the program," said Speroni. "However, we have the HP brand and our customers to protect, so we'll maintain stringent quality standards when selecting our partners for this program."

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services and an Internet infrastructure that's always on.

HP has 86,000 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

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