HP is paying £40,000 for details of 100,000 of its own
customers to stop them being circulated elsewhere.
The supplier is paying the money to the court handling the
assets of the bankrupt Interex independent HP user group.
Interex, which had 100,000 members, went into liquidation
earlier this year with debts of £2.5m after cancelling its annual
HP World user conference in the US.
Its membership list was seen as a valuable commercial asset that
could be used to raise funds for Interex creditors, but former
Interex members were angered that their details would be disclosed
to third parties.
A bidding war for the membership database started after a
reseller of refurbished HP kit made an offer for the list. The
database is also believed to contain the IT configuration details
of members' companies.
The reseller, HP and another interested party all bid for the
list and HP came in with the highest price.
HP said it bid to protect the privacy of its customers. The
company staged its own user conference in Orlando, Florida, last
month, to replace HP World.