The European Commission is reviewing Amazon’s billion-dollar takeover of iRobot, a company known for its robot vacuum cleaners. The Commission fears that the acquisition will put Amazon in a position to restrict competition in the vacuum robot market.
With the purchase, Amazon wants to expand its role in the connected home. When the project became known almost a year ago, iRobot was worth about $ 1.7 billion (now 1.56 billion euros), including outstanding debts.
iRobot is best known for its self-propelled Roomba vacuum cleaner. Newer models use cameras to make a 3D scan of the household and thanks to artificial intelligence, for example, prevent cables or dog faeces from lying on the floor. Angle also promised gripper-arm household robots for the future. iRobot pioneered robot vacuum cleaners and many suppliers now offer such devices.
One of the reasons given by the Commission for the preliminary concerns was that Amazon might be able and have the incentive to foreclose iRobot’s competitors by preventing them from selling robot vacuum cleaners on the online marketplace of iRobot. Amazon.com In addition, the large company could, for example, exclude competitors from the market by not allowing them to use the “Works with Alexa” certification or by making entry more difficult. Certification ensures that a device is compatible with the Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon said it will continue to work with the European Commission and focus on addressing the questions and concerns. iRobot competes fiercely with other vacuum cleaner manufacturers. The Commission emphasizes that its concerns are provisional. It will now examine the effects of the transaction in detail to determine whether the competition concerns are upheld, the authority said. If the concerns are confirmed, the Commission could, for example, issue conditions for the takeover.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
