Amazon has signed an agreement to procure iRobot, producers of Roomba robot vacuums. The deal is esteemed at around $1.7 billion, and Amazon will procure iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction.
“Customers love iRobot products — and I’m excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable,” says Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices. It’s not quickly clear the way in which iRobot will be integrated into Amazon once the deal is finalized and cleared by controllers, yet Amazon expects to keep Colin Angle as the CEO of iRobot.
iRobot has been planning robot vacuums starting around 2002, and it has sold huge number of its famous Roomba vacuums. Recently iRobot launched its most recent iRobot OS, an AI-powered platform for its robot vacuums and mops. The iRobot OS is intended to separate Roomba products from contenders with extra software features and abilities as the robot cleaning space gets progressively competitive.
While Amazon doesn’t detail its plans for iRobot, the collaborations with its other shrewd home products are clear. Amazon sent off its $999 Astro smart home robot last year, which Verge Deputy Editor Dan Seifert portrayed as “the love child between a Roomba and an Echo Show smart display.”
The long-rumored home assistant robot can delineate floor plans, listen to commands to move between rooms, and even perceives faces. Similar as an Alexa-powered gadget, it can address questions, play music, and show you things like the climate. iRobot’s most recent OS probably won’t be mounted to an Alexa on wheels, however it’s similarly aggressive, with the intend to help a superior comprehension of a home through AI and savvy highlights, and afterward reach out to different region of the smart home.
The combination of Roomba, Alexa, Ring doorbells, and Amazon’s other smart home products give the organization a fantastic measure of information in a modern smart home. That will normally prompt significantly more inquiries around privacy, and Amazon’s control over the smart home market.
