Humane is reportedly trying to sell itself to HP for $1 billion

Following rumors that Humane is hunting for a potential buyer for its AI Pin business, a new report suggests that HP may be a contender. According to The New York Times, Humane started talking to HP about selling itself for more than $1 billion around a week after reviews emerged that widely panned its $699 wearable AI computer pin.

That figure is also reflective of a similar report from Bloomberg last month that said Humane is “seeking a price of between $750 million and $1 billion.” It also isn’t inconceivable for HP, which previously acquired Palm hardware and its webOS operating system for $1.2 billion in 2010. HP killed all Palm-related production and support the following year, citing poor sales. LG now owns webOS.

Humane — led by former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno — has not responded well to criticism regarding its product, having slammed negative reviews for their lack of optimism. The AI Pin was widely criticized for not living up to its claimed expectations, with the company later emailing customers to warn them that the device’s charging case “may pose a fire safety risk.” The AI Pin’s laser display would also cause the device to overheat, with the Times reporting that Humane executives previously had to chill it with ice packs to keep it running longer.

The company reportedly fired a senior software engineer in February for questioning if the pin was ready for launch, which the Times says violates a policy restricting employees from talking negatively about Humane. Former and current employees told the publication that Chaudhri and Bongiorno disregarded warnings about the AI Pin’s poor battery life and power consumption, preferring “positivity over criticism.”

The Times reports that Humane had received around 10,000 orders for the AI Pin as of early April, significantly behind the 100,000 units it was aiming to sell this year. “You don’t know everything before you launch,” Bongiorno said in an interview with the Times, with Chaudhri adding they “definitely wish that we were able to resolve some of those things a little bit differently” regarding the AI Pin’s poor reviews.