News release

HP to Acquire Persist Technologies, Advancing Portfolio of Information Lifecycle Management Offerings

Solutions to help enterprises satisfy emerging compliance regulations, extract business value from reference information

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today signed a definitive agreement to acquire Persist Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of software designed for long-term storage and access of reference information. The acquisition is expected to improve HP's ability to deliver complete information lifecycle management (ILM) solutions. ILM is HP's strategy to actively manage information from its creation through deletion and according to its changing business relevance over time.

With Persist's active archiving software, HP expects to deliver enhanced archiving solutions to assist customers in complying with emerging and stringent data retention regulations and extract business value from large amounts of reference information.

"Customers today are looking for ILM solutions that reduce the cost of managing reference information while enabling compliance with data retention regulations," said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, Network Storage Solutions, HP. "The market demands reliable and scalable solutions that perform search and retrieval on reference information to extract value from stored data assets. With Persist, we gain immediate access to technologies that bolster our ability to deliver on these critical customer needs."

"Persist builds on HP's comprehensive portfolio of ILM solutions and global reach with unique and innovative software, skilled personnel and in-depth experience in the burgeoning ILM market segment," said Paul O'Brien, chief executive officer, Persist. "We are looking forward to becoming part of the HP team and offering our customers a more tightly coupled solution and specialized sales and support."

Persist develops and markets software for active archiving of e-mail, Microsoft® Office and other popular data types. When integrated with HP ProLiant servers and ProCurve switches, the Persist software creates an active archive system that can scale to handle exploding content storage demands.

With Persist, information and attributes are divided across self-contained modules, called SmartCells. SmartCells incorporate both storage and processing power and can be federated to create redundant, modular, grid-like computing and storage capacity.

Additionally, SmartCells of processing and storage hardware can be added non-disruptively, enabling customers to deploy a single, scalable solution for the management of reference information that readily scales as additional capacity is required to satisfy compliance regulations and business demands.

The Persist software also includes highly functional index, search and retrieval capabilities that makes it possible to search and retrieve both structured and unstructured content. The search and retrieve capability is independent of the creating application and executed using a search engine-like interface - delivering a true active archiving solution.

Providing a foundation for an adaptive enterprise

ILM allows enterprises to document and design the processes and deploy the technologies that actively manage and store information from creation to deletion, according to its changing business relevance over time. ILM solutions contribute to HP's adaptive management offerings that combine people, processes and technologies to deliver management from the resource level to the business-level. HP's adaptive management offerings are a critical component of an adaptive enterprise and are essential to establishing a dynamic link between business and IT.

In a separate announcement, HP today introduced more than 40 new and enhanced software solutions and services to manage an adaptive enterprise by helping customers to integrate their mixed technology assets, cut management costs by up to 30 percent and increasingly automate their information technology systems' responsiveness to real-time business demands.

More information about HP's adaptive management launch is available in an online press kit at http://www.hp.com/go/amlaunch. More information about HP's ILM offerings is available at http://www.hp.com/go/ilm.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium businesses. For the last four quarters, HP revenue totaled $71.3 billion. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever 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 and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the closing of the acquisition may not occur at all or may occur on terms and conditions that are amended from the terms and conditions contained in the executed acquisition agreement; that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; any statements of belief; any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended July 31, 2003 and HP's other Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2002. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.