2 days ago
7
Roomba shaper iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy extortion connected Sunday and said the robotic vacuum cleaner would merchantability itself to a Chinese declaration manufacturer.
Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co., which makes Roombas for Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, volition bargain the company, according to a quality release. iRobot said it doesn't expect immoderate disruptions to its app, lawsuit work oregon different functions.
Founded successful 1990 by MIT roboticists, iRobot initially designed robots for abstraction exploration, according to the company. iRobot debuted the Roomba successful 2002, billing it arsenic the archetypal robotic vacuum for household floors. As income grew, the institution went nationalist successful 2005, and its banal terms erstwhile topped $125.
Shares of iRobot fell $3.12, oregon 72%, to $1.20 successful pre-market trading connected Monday.
Amazon agreed to buy iRobot for $1.7 billion successful 2022, but the deal fell apart past twelvemonth aft pushback from European Union regulators. At that time, Amazon said it would wage iRobot an agreed-upon termination interest of $94 million, portion the vacuum shaper planned to restructure to assistance stabilize the business.
In September, iRobot warned that it was struggling with declining income arsenic consumers chopped spending, warning that it was astatine hazard of either shutting down immoderate operations oregon filing for bankruptcy.
Under the woody with Picea, iRobot said it volition proceed to run "in the mean people with nary anticipated disruption to its app functionality, lawsuit programs, planetary partners, proviso concatenation relationships oregon ongoing merchandise support."
Edited by Alain Sherter
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
English (US) ·