News release

HP Chosen as Outsourcing Partner by Sara Lee/DE

HP Acquires Sara Lee/DE's European IT Departments as Part of Agreement

AMSTELVEEN, The Netherlands, Dec. 19, 2000

As part of the agreement, the 150 employees of Sara Lee/DE's European IT departments will become part of HP Outsourcing, a group within HP's services organization. HP's services organization currently produces revenue over $7 billion worldwide. HP will take responsibility for Sara Lee/DE's current IT services as well as for the pan-European infrastructure services.

This strategic alliance is expected to allow Sara Lee/DE to move to a European business model and benefit from new developments in IT such as e-business.

"We are thrilled to be selected by Sara Lee/DE as their outsourcing partner," said Jan Moen, account general manager of HP for Sara Lee/DE. "HP itself has gone through similar business programs on a worldwide scale with great success. We've implemented these business programs in our own organization as well as for a large number of our clients. We are managing many of these infrastructure environments today, and we feel confident our skills are a perfect complement to Sara Lee/DE's needs."

"As a vital element of our new European business vision, this partnership with HP will enable us to keep up with cutting-edge advances in finance and administration, information systems, and logistics without stealing time, capital, and brainpower away from our core operations -- our main reasons for being in business," said Theo de Kool, CFO of Sara Lee/DE.

Sara Lee/DE's IT departments involve 10 countries and more than 20 operating companies. The transition of IT activities is expected to be completed by the spring of 2001.

No specific financial figures of the transaction were disclosed from the companies.

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 88,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

About Sara Lee/DE

Sara Lee/DE is a Netherlands-based company that is part of Sara Lee Corporation, a global branded consumer packaged goods company with approximately $ 17.5 billion in annual revenues. Sara Lee/DE manages the worldwide Household and Body Care division as well as the Coffee and Tea division and all activities of Sara Lee Corporation in the Asia Pacific region.

Sara Lee/DE's leading brands include Douwe Egberts, Maison du Café, Marcilla, Merrild, Natrena, Pickwick, Kiwi, Tana, Ambi-Pur, Catch, Vapona, Brylcreem, Badedas, Delial, Duschdas, Monsavon, Radox, Sanex, Zwitsal and Zendium.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning proposed new products, services, or developments; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The risks, uncertainties and assumptions referred to above include the ability of HP to retain and motivate key employees; the timely development, production and acceptance of products and services and their feature sets; the challenge of managing asset levels, including inventory; the flow of products into third-party distribution channels; the difficulty of keeping expense growth at modest levels while increasing revenues; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Oct. 31, 1999, and subsequently filed reports. HP does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.