Amazon buys Roomba for $1.7 billion

Amazon just announced a massive deal to buy home robot company iRobot for $1.7 billion. It’s Amazon’s fourth-biggest acquisition after purchasing grocery store chain Whole Foods in 2017 ($13.7 billion), MGM in 2021 ($8.45 billion) and healthcare provider One Medical last month ($3.9 billion). dollars).

iRobot is the world’s leading consumer robot company. The company mainly produces Roomba vacuum cleaners and mop robots, and is also trying to release a lawnmower robot.

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Amazon has also dipped its toes into the iRobot space lately, with a sort of commercial launch of the “Astro”home robot. Astro is basically an Alexa/camera/tablet on wheels that can move around the house. However, sales are by invitation only, so this is more of an experiment than a major consumer launch.

However, Amazon doesn’t mention the little home robot at all in its press release, with Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices, saying: something more useful.”Over the years, the iRobot team has proven its ability to reinvent the way people clean with incredibly practical and inventive products, from cleaning when and where customers want, avoiding common obstacles in the home, to automatically emptying the trash can. “

The press release says that iRobot CEO Colin Angle will remain the head of iRobot and the deal is subject to regulatory approval.