The American consumer robot giant iRobot, once known as the "originator" of the sweeping robot industry, has been revealed to have fallen into a serious financial crisis! As of November 24,The company owes a total of more than US$350 million (approximately 2.5 billion yuan) to Shenzhen, China's foundry Sugawa Robot, and its cash reserves are only US$24.8 million, making it on the verge of technical bankruptcy..
The company was founded by an MIT professor in 1990. In 2002, it launched its first Roomba sweeping robot, which once occupied more than 80% of the U.S. sweeping robot market. Its products are widely used in military, rescue and other fields.
However, in 2022, with the increase in competitors and various reasons of its own, the company will reach a turning point——All regional markets around the world experienced an overall decline, with revenue falling 24% year-on-year to US$1.183 billion, and a net loss of US$286.3 million.
That year, Amazon proposed an acquisition plan of US$1.7 billion, which was later reduced to US$1.4 billion. However, it completely failed in January 2024 due to European and American antitrust reviews.
After the deal failed, iRobot laid off 350 people (31%), the CEO resigned, the strategy shrank, and the financial situation further deteriorated.
Coupled with the rigid pricing strategy and continued decline in product competitiveness, the global market share has dropped to 7.9% this year.
As of September this year, the company's total assets were US$481 million, total liabilities were US$508 million, and shareholders' equity was -US$26.8 million, making it officially insolvent.
iRobot is "actively negotiating" with Sugikawa on a debt solution, and the industry generally believes thatSugawa's intervention is iRobot's "only possible chance of survival," but it also means that control of the company will fall into the hands of Chinese companies.
