HP 2007 Annual Report Download - page 87

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
Hewlett-Packard Company
We have audited Hewlett-Packard Company’ s internal control over financial reporting as of October 31, 2007, based on
criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission (the COSO criteria). Hewlett-Packard Company’ s management is responsible for maintaining
effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial
reporting included in the accompanying Management’ s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’ s internal control over financial reporting based on
our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective
internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an
understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and
evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our
opinion.
A company’ s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding
the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles. A company’ s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and
procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the
transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as
necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that
receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and
directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized
acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’ s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.
Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may
deteriorate.
In our opinion, Hewlett-Packard Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial
reporting as of October 31, 2007 based on the COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States), the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Hewlett-Packard Company and subsidiaries as of October 31, 2007
and 2006, and the related consolidated statements of earnings, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years
in the period ended October 31, 2007 and our report dated December 14, 2007 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ERNST & YOUNG LLP
San Jose, California
December 14, 2007
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