Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and HP (NYSE “HPQ,” Nasdaq “HPQ”) announced a three-year agreement to deliver an expanded portfolio of solutions for enterprise customers around the world. HP is the first premier global partner to deliver comprehensive solutions for the People-Ready Business, Microsoft’s vision for how people, armed with the right software, are the key to driving business success.

“With the recent announcement of the largest product launch to business customers in our company’s history with Windows Vista™ and the 2007 Microsoft® Office system, we are bringing to market more than 30 new products and services in the next year that will further enable People-Ready Businesses,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Through our collaboration with HP, our more than 20,000 joint customers will have access to an expanded set of solutions and services to tackle their most pressing business problems.”

“Extending our strategic alliance with Microsoft further strengthens HP’s enterprise strategy, which is focused on empowering CIOs to align IT with business by delivering more cost-effective, scalable, secure ways of enhancing employee productivity,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group at HP. “HP itself is a great example of the power of Solutions for the People-Ready Business, as we are using many of the technologies in the portfolio to empower our people to conduct business at any time, from anywhere.”

To help enterprise customers worldwide realise greater value from their existing IT assets, capitalise on next-generation technologies, and achieve a more agile, adaptive enterprise, the new HP & Microsoft Solutions for the People-Ready Business portfolio will focus on five high-growth areas of IT investment: messaging and unified communications; collaboration and content management; business intelligence; business process integration; and core infrastructure.

Building on a more than 20-year alliance, Microsoft and HP plan to invest at least $300 million over three years to cover collaborative efforts in solution development, testing, validation, deployment, and joint sales and marketing. Additional components of this initiative include these:

•Expansion of a joint solutions portfolio to include new and updated offerings that enable customers to capitalise on the shift toward the next-generation data center trend in: Messaging & Unified Communications; Collaboration & Content Management; Business Intelligence (BI); Business Process Integration; Microsoft Core Infrastructure.

•Creation of a new, dedicated Microsoft Solutions Practice chartered with the ongoing design, development and launch of Microsoft-specific offerings.

•Increased joint development in additional solutions to help ensure that all solution components provide customers with the greatest return on investment.

•Establishment of a Solutions for a People-Ready Business Training Program that will offer a curriculum that covers both technical and sales training in all the new solution focus areas and which will result in more than 3,000 newly Microsoft-trained consultants at HP.

Microsoft and HP share more than 20,000 joint customers worldwide today, many of which have already begun deploying products in the Solutions for the People-Ready Business Portfolio.

Microsoft recognises HP Services as Worldwide Prime Integrator for Microsoft’s next-generation products and technologies, which can deliver one of the broadest IT portfolios to customers around the world.

More information about the HP & Microsoft Solutions for the People-Ready Business can be found at http://www.hp.com/microsoft.