The European Union’s executive, the European Commission, announced earlier this month its intention to block Amazon’s pending acquisition of iRobot, a robot vacuum company. It meant that Amazon and iRobot had no choice but to abandon the deal, leading to a mass layoff of 31% of iRobot’s global workforce. The failed Amazon-iRobot deal is the latest example of how regulatory delay and uncertainty can kill American jobs and chill innovation.
Amazon agreed to purchase Massachusetts-based iRobot for $1.7 billion in an all-cash deal in June 2022. The following month, the Federal Trade Commission announced its review of the transaction. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) cheered on the FTC’s review and called for the agency to block the deal. The consequences of this protracted waiting period have been disastrous for iRobot. In 2022, iRobot’s annual revenue fell by 24% for a net loss of $286 million after turning a profit in 2020 and 2021. In the third quarter of 2023 alone, U.S. revenue fell by nearly 42%.
