Computers Prospective buyer for robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot jumps ship
The robot vacuum cleaner pioneer iRobot has lost around a third of its stock market value in one day. This was after the last prospective buyer for the US company dropped out.
28.10.2025, 05:01
SDA
iRobot announced in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it is currently in talks with investors about additional funds to finance ongoing operations. Among other things, this is to be used to pay high outstanding amounts to the main contract manufacturer, it said. As a result, the share price fell by 33.87 percent in US trading.
The industry pioneer is struggling with competition from Chinese manufacturers in particular. Last year, iRobot's turnover fell by a good 23 percent to around 682 million dollars. Revenue had already fallen by around a quarter in 2023. All in all, iRobot closed the year with a loss of 145.5 million dollars. However, following cost-cutting measures such as drastic job cuts, this was only half as high as the previous year.
iRobot wanted to be bought by Amazon in order to better compete against its rivals, some of which were cheaper. However, the deal agreed in August 2022 fell through in January due to resistance from European competition authorities. The EU Commission saw a risk that Amazon could hinder iRobot's competitors on its trading platform.
