Roomba Maker iRobot Files Chapter 11, Bought by Picea Robotics Supplier

Facing fierce competition and rising tariffs, iRobot restructures under Picea Robotics to secure its smart home future.

iRobot, the manufacturer of the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US due to strong pressure from more reasonably priced rivals. As part of a restructuring plan, all outstanding shares in iRobot will be purchased by Shenzhen-based Picea Robotics, the company's main supplier and lender.

This comes after Amazon's attempt to buy iRobot for £1.3 billion failed in January of last year. The acquisition was accepted by the e-commerce giant in August 2022, but EU competition regulators strongly opposed the agreement.

The European Commission, citing possible negative effects in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, raised concerns that the combination may reduce competition for competing products on Amazon's online marketplace. As per their investigation, if the purchase had gone through, Amazon might have made rival products less visible.

According to Gary Cohen CEO of iRobot, today’s announcement marks a pivotal milestone in securing iRobot’s long term future. The transaction will improve their financial position and will help deliver continuity for their consumers/customers and partners. Together they will work to keep advancing the superior Roomba robots and smart home technologies that have defined the iRobot brand for more than three decades.

iRobot will be able to influence the next phase of smart home robotics by combining Picea's history of innovation, manufacturing and technical know-how with iRobot's creativity, based on consumer design, research and development. Competition from less expensive Chinese competitors and rising US tariffs, which have raised import taxes to 46 percent on goods from Vietnam, where the majority of iRobot's products are manufactured for the US, have hurt the Massachusetts-based company.