If there's as much demand for him as you're describing, he could probably make a much better living doing consulting for these companies than he could working for HP.
I referred to HN as "my Silicon Valley friends"
In his shoes, I'd also make sure I keep contact information for all his best customers. Because if he gets laid off suddenly, he'll want to go back to them at least to say, "Hey, do any of your vendors need a reliable field service engineer?"
discovering an interest in being linkedin friends with them is not afaik