Ay, caroomba
If you're not the biggest fan of housework, you might have come across the Roomba range of robot vacuums, which offer hands-free cleaning by identifying obstacles and avoiding hazards — a skill that Amazon dealmakers may have benefitted from when they agreed to buy the vacuum cleaner’s parent co. last year.
Amazon announced a deal in August 2022 to buy iRobot for $61 per share (a total of ~$1.7 billion), but the acquisition has looked unlikely almost ever since. Regulatory concerns dogged the deal from day one, and in July, Amazon lowered its offer to $51.75 per share after the robot maker took out $200m in loans to keep the company ticking over in the limbo period.
Indeed, iRobot’s share price has slumped even further this week, dropping ~18% yesterday following news that EU regulators objected to the deal, citing concerns that Amazon’s acquisition could “restrict competition” in the robot vacuum cleaner market. British regulators have also investigated the offer, clearing it in June, while the FTC has requested more information, but is yet to make any official challenge.
The Roomba maker’s shares are now trading at a ~34% discount to what Amazon is theoretically going to buy them for — suggesting investors aren’t convinced the deal will ever be done and dusted.
