HP announced that it will take a roughly $100 million charge due to poor sale through of the TouchPad, likely in order to credit Best Buy and other resellers for their unsold inventory.

Apple Insider reports that the company revealed during its quarterly earnings call that it took a $.05 charge per share for the TouchPad, which, given the company's 2.07 billion outstanding shares, amounts to just over $100 million.

The news came amid a bevy of changes announced by HP, including the cancellation of webOS, the potential spinning off of its PC business and the $10 billion purchase of software giant Autonomy Corporation.

Assuming a $400 write-off on each TouchPad unit, the charge would cover close to 260,000 unsold tablets, in line with a recent tip suggesting Best Buy was returning more than 240,000 TouchPads after selling just 25,000.

Resellers would either return the devices to HP for a credit, or could use subsidies from the company to sell stock at fire-sale prices.

The TouchPad tablet arrived in July to unenthusiastic reviews. Just one month later, HP slashed its price by $100 after failing to gain traction. However, one analyst has suggested that the discount may have backfired because customers are expecting even further price drops.