NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 20, 2006--Hewlett-Packard Co. (H-P, A-/Positive/A-1) has disclosed that an investigation initiated by its board of directors into leaks of confidential company information included the use of "pretexting" to obtain individuals' phone records. In addition, California and Federal authorities are investigating the practices used by H-P with respect to the company's investigation. At this time, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services does not expect the investigations to have an impact on our ratings or outlook on the company. The ratings and positive outlook continue to be supported by improving profitability in the imaging and printing, personal systems, and services segments, excellent liquidity and significant free cash flow generation. However, the ongoing investigations preclude any near-term ratings
