Hey Alexa, tell Roomba to vacuum the bedroom.
Amazon announced Friday that it has come to an agreement Buying iRobot Corp., maker of Roomba robot vacuums, for $1.7 billion to add to its growing lineup of smart home products.
“We know that saving time is important, and doing chores takes precious time that could be better spent doing the things our customers love,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices, in a statement announcing the acquisition.
Amazon will acquire iRobot, including its debt, in an all-cash deal of $61 per share, the statement said. The acquisition would be Amazon’s fourth-largest after 2017’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market and last year’s $8.5 billion purchase of film studio MGM. Last month, Amazon announced its foray into healthcare, agreeing to buy One Medical, a chain of primary care clinics across the United States, for $3.9 billion.
Roomba and iRobot’s other cleaning gear, including robotic mops and air purifiers, join Amazon’s portfolio of smart home devices, which includes Ring doorbells and Amazon’s virtual assistant and speaker Alexa. iRobot also makes an educational robot called Root that lets kids try coding.
Roomba first appeared on dirty floors in 2002, delighting lazy people and confusing pets, especially cats. The New York Times described it as “simple, effective and fun” and quickly became a “family” product.
The early $200 version struggled around corners and chair legs, and even fell down stairs. But 20 years later, the Roomba j7 can recognize more than 80 common objects (including ropes and pet litter), return to the dock after chores, and empty itself, according to the company. The most expensive option is $999.99.
While iRobot is best known for its roving cleaning devices, the technology that powers these tools is also ingesting the vast amount of spatial data used to map users’ homes. Some digital rights groups have expressed concern that the data could help companies such as Amazon find information on the size of homes and even content, down to brands.
iRobot reported revenue of $255.4 million in the second quarter of 2022, down 30% from the previous year. Amazon reported second-quarter revenue of $121.2 billion, up 7.2% year over year, but slightly below the 7.3% revenue growth reported in the first quarter of this year. It was Amazon’s slowest growth in more than two decades after the company began to decline from high pandemic demand.
