EU reopens review of Amazon's $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, with a deadline of February 14 next year

CTOnews.com, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) Amazon gradually showed a strong interest in floor-sweeping robot company iRobot last year and proposed to buy iRobot for about $1.7 billion (CTOnews.com Note: about 12.461 billion yuan) at the beginning of this year, a decision currently under investigation by the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission's case page was updated to show that the EU has reopened its review of Amazon's acquisition of iRobot, setting February 14 as the final deadline.

IRobot, a floor-sweeping robot company, was far ahead of its competitors, with a global market share of 46% in 2020, compared with 17% for the second-largest robot, according to analyst firm Statista. But the current business situation of iRobot is not optimistic. The company's revenue last year was $1.183 billion (about 8.542 billion yuan), down 24.4% from 2021, while Kovos Robot's revenue last year was 15.3 billion yuan, up 17% from the previous year.