The European Union's competition regulator plans to block Amazon's $1.4 billion acquisition of sweeping robot company iRobot, media reported on Thursday (January 18), citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon was reportedly told on Thursday during a meeting with officials from the European Commission, the EU’s competition watchdog, thatThe transaction may be declined.

According to the latest information on the European Commission's website, Amazon had until the January 10 deadline to propose remedies in an attempt to address antitrust regulators' concerns that the deal could restrict competition in the market for sweeping robots.

Once this news is sent,iRobot's stock price plummeted 40% in after-hours trading on Thursday, to $14.16 per share. So far this year, the company's stock price has fallen off a cliff, with a cumulative decline of 38%, closing at $23.62 per share on Thursday.


Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a technology lobby group, pointed out that "if the goal of blocking the acquisition is to make competition in the home robot field more intense, it makes no sense."

Schruers added, "Blocking this deal could leave consumers with fewer choices, and regulators cannot hide that fact."

Under existing procedures, the European Commission has until February 14 to decide whether to approve or reject the deal.

From the perspective of the category of sweeping robots, iRobot is undoubtedly the originator of the industry. The company was founded in 1990. The founding team was three members of the MIT AI Laboratory. It initially aimed to design robots for space exploration and national defense military purposes. The famous search and rescue robot Packbot in the 9.11 terrorist attacks came from this company. One of the company's current popular products is the Roomba smart sweeping robot.

In August 2022, e-commerce giant Amazon announced plans to acquire iRobot at a price of $61 per share. This transaction will deepen Amazon's layout in the smart home field. Its current smart device portfolio includes Alexa voice assistants, smart thermostats, smart security devices and wall-mounted smart displays.

In late July 2023, the two companies announced that they had agreed to reduce the acquisition price by approximately 15%. Under the revised agreement, Amazon will acquire iRobot for $51.75 per share, for a total value of approximately $1.4 billion.

However, iRobot's current stock price is not even half of the per-share purchase price in the revised agreement.