HP's redwood property could become a state park
A piece of land owned by Hewlett-Packard since 1963 was sold to two nonprofit groups for $4 million, according to the Associated Press.
The 534-acre property, known as Little Basin, is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains and has long been used for company picnics, events and camping trips. The land is reportedly worth $13 million, and HP says it is selling it because the company's employees are not all located in or near the PC maker's San Francisco Bay Area headquarters.
"It's not a cost issue. Basically we had a minority of employees who were getting a benefit that wasn't consistent across the company," Steve Brashear, HP's vice president for real estate and workplace services, told the AP.
The new owners are two Bay Area nonprofits, the Sempervirens Fund, and the Peninsula Open Space Trust. Both say they will work with the state government to make the property open to the public as a state park.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
