iRobot, the Bedford, Massachusetts-based company that brought the Roomba vacuum cleaner into American homes over its 35-year history, [1]filed for bankruptcy on Sunday and will be acquired by Picea, its Chinese contract manufacturer that also produces competing household devices.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board [2]placed blame for the company's demise on the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Lina Khan , which opposed Amazon's $1.7 billion [3]bid to acquire iRobot . That deal [4]collapsed in January 2024 amid regulatory pressure from both the FTC and European antitrust authorities. Senator Elizabeth Warren and other progressives had urged Khan to block the acquisition, arguing in a September 2022 letter that Amazon is "'almost universally recognized' as the leader in warehouse and fulfillment robotics space" and that the deal "would open up a new market to Amazon's abuses."

After the deal fell through, iRobot cut 31% of its workforce and moved "non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions." The company had shifted production to Vietnam to reduce its exposure to China but was hit by tariffs under Trump's Liberation Day trade measures -- initially 46%, later reduced to 20%. iRobot said the trade uncertainty made it difficult to operate.



[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/12/15/0152212/roomba-maker-irobot-files-for-bankruptcy-after-35-years

[2] https://www.wsj.com/opinion/irobot-roomba-elizabeth-warren-lina-khan-amazon-antitrust-china-b2319f77

[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/08/05/1438229/amazon-is-buying-irobot-for-17-billion

[4] https://slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/1350237/amazon-terminates-irobot-deal-citing-regulatory-concern-irobot-to-lay-off-31-of-staff