Amazon has announced that it’s buying iRobot, the firm behind the Roomba vacuum. Under the deal, Amazon will pay $61 per share in an all-cash transaction, totalling $1.7 billion, including iRobot’s net debt. For the deal to complete, iRobot’s shareholders will need to agree to the deal and regulators will need to approve it.
iRobot’s CEO, Colin Angle, will stay on in his position following the completion of the deal. As he already knows the company, it allows Amazon to continue running iRobot without major headaches. The acquisition will further cement Amazon’s position in the smart home market too as its product range expands.
Commenting on the deal, Colin Angle, CEO at iRobot, said:
“Since we started iRobot, our team has been on a mission to create innovative, practical products that make customers’ lives easier, leading to inventions like the Roomba and iRobot OS. Amazon shares our passion for building thoughtful innovations that empower people to do more at home, and I cannot think of a better place for our team to continue our mission. I’m hugely excited to be a part of Amazon and to see what we can build together for customers in the years ahead.”
For its part, Amazon seems to be quite excited by the deal too. The e-commerce giant said it was eager to work with iRobot and find new ways to help make people’s lives easier. It said that iRobot has already tackled a lot of difficult problems including avoid obstacles, automatically emptying the collection bin, and more. Amazon does a good job at offering its Kindles at an affordable price, so it’ll be interesting if it can lower the cost of Roomba vacuums too, which can still be fairly pricey.
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