Amazon’s Roomba-quisition is looking messy as the FTC continues its antitrust press

Stuck under the couch… Amazon's $1.7B acquisition of Roomba-maker iRobot has gathered dust since it was announced last summer. Amazon’s potential fourth-largest acquisition ever is facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and, as of last week, also by the UK’s antitrust regulator. Amazon’s already so dominant that regulators may be concerned about it ruling the vacuum world, too.

• Small vac, big punch: In late 2021 iRobot held a whopping 62% of the robotic-vacuum market (excluding China) — a significantly larger market share than that held by previous Amazon buys like MGM and One Medical.

• Privacy please: Antitrust and data-privacy experts are concerned that the acquisition might give Amazon access to Roomba customer data (picture: cameras that map homes to avoid couch run-ins).

• Sputtering: iRobot shares are down 32% from Amazon’s $61/share offering.

Dusting off powers… The FTC, under chair Lina Khan, has grown much tougher on big tech in recent years. In December, the agency sued to block Microsoft's $69B takeover of Activision Blizzard, and earlier this month ordered biotech company Illumina to undo its $7B buyout of cancer-test developer Grail. The moves may be having an effect: last year, Nvidia ditched plans to buy chip maker Arm in what would’ve been the biggest semiconductor deal ever. Looking ahead, the FTC last month vowed to protect competition in the AI industry.