Founded in 1982, Compaq was once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, but ceased to exist as an independent company in 2002 when it merged with Hewlett Packard.

Its early achievements included the production of the first "100%" IBM PC compatible personal computer not manufactured by IBM, and then the first PC based on Intel’s 386 microprocessor.  The Compaq product line of this era was based around the Portable, Deskpro and Systempro series of machines.

Compaq later introduced several new product lines including the LTE and Armada laptops and the Proliant servers.  The Deskpro name remained on the majority of Compaq’s business desktops, which were joined by the more retail-orientated Presarios

Compaq’s early rapid expansion continued into the 1990s, including the company’s acquisition of two of its rivals – Tandem and DEC. 

Since the merger with Hewlett Packard, most Compaq products have been re-branded with the HP badge, such as the company's market leading Proliant server line, while the Compaq brand remains on only some consumer-orientated products, such as the Compaq Presario PCs. HP's business computers line was discontinued in favour of the Compaq Evo line, which was rebranded as HP Compaq. HP's Jornada PDAs were replaced by Compaq iPAQ PDAs, which were renamed HP iPAQ.

In May 2007, HP in a press release announced a new logo for their Compaq Division to be placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.

In 2008, HP dropped the "Compaq" name from its HP Compaq business notebooks and is now marketing them as the HP EliteBook and as of early 2009, the HP ProBook, leaving the Compaq name for HP's entry-level consumer platforms.

Despite Compaq’s demise as an independent producer, Rivermain is still able to supply parts for many of the machines made before the merger.

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