Humanitarian launched the AI Pin wearable last year with much enthusiasm and anticipation. Suffice it to say that she did not live up to expectations. While it had a lot of potential in concept, it was actually a different story. So much so that Humane was reportedly trying selland now word on the street is that they want HP to buy them.
According to a report by The New York Times, Humane began talking to HP about buying its stake. Apparently the company is looking for between $750 million and $1 billion, which is honestly a lot of money for a company whose product hasn’t sold very well. The report claims that Humane initially aimed to sell 100,000 units of its AI Pin this year, but fell short of that goal.
It is estimated that so far the company has only received about 10,000 orders. Some of the technologies and possible patents used to develop the AI Pin could have some value, but would it be worth a billion dollars? We think it’s a bit exaggerated.
HP has been quite active in the consumer space selling devices like computers and printers. The company hasn’t really ventured much into the mobile space, except in 2010, when they acquired Palm and webOS. That deal was worth $1.2 billion and was later sold to LG. We imagine the company probably isn’t too eager to spend another billion dollars on something that hasn’t yet proven successful.