Party City Holdco Inc., the party goods company, posted an approximately 36 percent jump in brand comparable sales in the first quarter from the 13 weeks that ended April 4, 2020. In a Monday (May 10) earnings press release, the company also said that brand comparable sales climbed by approximately 0.4 percent from the 13 weeks concluding on April 6, 2019.
“Despite operating in a pandemic-impacted environment with fewer in-person celebrations, brand comparable sales increased 0.4 percent versus 2019. While social gatherings were suppressed for a significant portion of the quarter, we were very encouraged by first-quarter results and sales momentum, which continued into April,” CEO Brad Weston said in the release.
As for its overall results, Party City Holdco posted a $5.4 million adjusted net loss on $426.8 million in total revenues. However, the company noted that first-quarter 2021 results had “one month of international results versus three months in the prior-year period” due to a “previously disclosed sale of a substantial portion of its international operations at the end of January 2021.”
Party City Holdco had 751 total corporate Party Store stores as of the end of March 2021, down from 757 in the prior-year period.
For the second quarter of 2021, the company anticipates total revenue to range between $475 million and $490 million. “As we look to the second quarter, we are confident in our overall positioning heading into the summer and graduation season,” Weston said.
Party City is a retail brand in addition to a company that brings together “manufacturing and sourcing operations” and “wholesale operations complemented by a multi-channel retailing strategy and eCommerce retail operations,” according to the release.
The news comes as cooped up American consumers are excited to dress up, get out, dine in eateries and reconnect with the world, according to new economic analysis.
The April Mastercard SpendingPulse report indicated that U.S. retail sales surged by 23.3 percent in April compared to a year ago, in the latest sign that the economy is bouncing back.
Humane, creator of the Ai Pin that received a wave of negative user reviews, is shutting down and selling its assets to HP for $116 million.
HP will get Humane’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform called Cosmos, its technical staff and intellectual property with more than 300 patents and patent applications, Humane announced Tuesday (Feb. 18). The Humane team will form HP’s new innovation lab, HP IQ.
The HP acquisition marks a swift downfall for the AI wearable, which began shipping less than a year ago. It was aiming for sales of 100,000 units but fell far short at 10,000. Now, the startup is telling Ai Pin owners that their devices will stop working after Feb. 28, and all stored data will be deleted.
Humane was founded by Apple executives Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, who are married. The startup raised $230 million since its 2018 inception, according to Crunchbase. Its investors included Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank and Microsoft.
Once named a Time magazine best invention of the year, the Ai Pin disappointed users who complained about malfunctions, its high price and overheating problems. Due to sluggish sales, the Ai Pin had to cut its price from $699 to $499. Users also had to pay $24 a month excluding taxes and fees for connectivity and cloud storage.
“The pin was more vanity than practical. There was really nothing more people could do with the Humane Ai Pin that they couldn’t otherwise do with their smartphones,” Kushank Aggarwal, founder of Digital Samaritan, told PYMNTS. “Plus, voice-only devices haven’t experienced mass adoption yet, so in that respect, it was destined to fail.”
Once compared to the Star Trek communicator badge, the Ai Pin has a square shape and attaches to a shirt or coat using magnets. It uses AI to answer questions and perform tasks, such as making calls, sending messages or taking notes. A laser display projects text onto the user’s palm. Sensors detect hand gestures to control the device.
But early adopters complained that the pin would drag down the front of thinner shirts, that it would overheat, it didn’t work well, had slow response times, made frequent mistakes and its laser projector beaming text onto the hand was hard to read in bright light.
An Engadget reviewer said that “the combination of holding out my hand to see the projected screen, waving it around to navigate the interface and tapping my chest and waiting for an answer all just made me look really stupid.”
Reviewer Marques Brownlee said it was “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed … for now.” Wired magazine’s reviewer opined that “right now, there’s nothing here that makes me want to use it over my smartphone,” although he held out for the next version to be better.
Anant Sood, co-founder of Worxogo, told PYMNTS that “people develop strong habits around existing technologies. … The Humane Ai Pin required users to break smartphone habits across the board instead of breaking one small habit at a time. For new technology adoption, the perceived value had to significantly outweigh the effort to unlearn.”
Andrey Meshcheryakov, an engagement manager at Recombinators, said the company “struggled to identify a compelling use case and validate that its solution truly addresses it. If you’re creating a new category, make sure there’s a real demand or subpar consumer experience you’re [hoping to solve] — not just a futuristic concept people might find cool.”
Meshcheryakov pointed out that Humane, despite having “a dream team with Apple pedigrees,” missed “several blind spots: a deep understanding of customer needs, orchestrating an impactful go-to-market strategy, offering a reasonable business model, and ultimately acing the solution design — getting the combination of hardware, AI and user experience right.”
Moreover, Humane hyped its device before it was ready for prime time, Meshcheryakov told PYMNTS. “It’s better to debut a quietly excellent product than a loudly proclaimed flop,” he said. “Even a great product can falter with poor marketing, and a flawed product has no cushion at all. Additionally, the pricing model was a hard sell without proven value.”
For HP, the deal marks a significant step in its strategic transformation toward experience-driven computing and AI-powered devices.
“This investment will rapidly accelerate our ability to develop a new generation of devices that seamlessly orchestrate AI requests both locally and in the cloud,” Tuan Tran, president of technology and innovation at HP, said in a statement.
HP plans to integrate Humane’s AI capabilities across its entire product line, from AI-enabled PCs to smart printers and connected conference rooms.
As part of the acquisition, Humane’s engineers, architects and product innovators will join HP’s Technology and Innovation Organization, forming a new division called HP IQ. This AI innovation lab will focus on developing intelligent ecosystems across HP’s product range, specifically targeting workplace productivity solutions.
Humane co-founders Bongiorno and Chaudhri highlighted the potential of combining HP’s global reach with Humane’s design-led approach and engineering expertise. “HP’s scale, global reach, and operational excellence — combined with our design-led approach, integration technology, and engineering expertise — will redefine workforce productivity,” they said.
The move comes at a crucial time in the tech industry, as major hardware manufacturers race to integrate AI capabilities into their products. HP’s acquisition positions the company to compete more effectively in the growing market for AI-enabled devices and workplace solutions.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of this month, subject to customary closing conditions.
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