Amazon terminates iRobot offer, vacuum maker to lay off 31% of staff members

Amazon terminates iRobot offer, vacuum maker to lay off 31% of staff members


The iRobot headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, US, on Friday, June 16, 2023. Amazon.com Inc.’s proposed $1.7 billion offer to acquire robot vacuum organization iRobot Corp. was specified the all-apparent by the UKs antitrust agency. Photographer: Sophie Park/Bloomberg by means of Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon stated on Monday it would not shift forward with a planned acquisition of vacuum-maker iRobot, with the two organizations indicating in a launch there was “no path to regulatory acceptance for the deal.”

The vacuum maker also declared it would lay off 31% of its staff members, around 350 people today, and that its chair and CEO Colin Angle would move down powerful promptly.

iRobot shares fell 15% on the news.

The fate of the deal was plunged into uncertainty immediately after The Wall Street Journal documented that the European Union would not give regulatory acceptance.

“We are dissatisfied that Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot could not proceed,” Amazon senior vice president and basic counsel David Zapolsky reported in a launch.

Amazon will pay iRobot a earlier-agreed-on $94 million separation charge. The terminated deal would have valued iRobot at roughly $1.7 billion.

The robotic vacuum maker has a sector capitalization of underneath $400 million, following Monday’s news and prior reports that the European Union would transfer to block the deal.

The European Fee did not promptly return CNBC’s ask for for comment.

This is breaking news. Be sure to examine back for updates.



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