The deal is part of a concerted push by the world's largest online retailer to expand its range of smart home devices and comes at a time when iRobto’s stock is worth only half that of its peak during Covid, when consumers were investing heavily in premium, robotic vacuum cleaners.
Last year Amazon said that it believed that in the next 5-10 years that every home would have at least one robot, although many analysts believe that homes will actually be using a number of devices which will be able to communicate with one another.
While there is a significant chance that the acquisition will be referred to the competition authorities in the US, it suggests that while Amazon's devices unit only makes up a fraction of company revenue, it is looking seriously at expanding its reach into the devices’ market.
iRobots Roomba vacuums are able to collect spatial data on households which could be used in future smart home technology but as critics have warned that could create a major issue around privacy and massively expand the personal home information Amazon already has on consumers.
Whatever happens the acquisition highlights just how much cash companies like Amazon have – around $37bn according to financial reports – so expect to see many more such deals going forward.
