iRobot Corporation (IRBT) tanked nearly 20% on Monday after the European Commission said its deal with Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) raises competition concerns.
Amazon receives a statement of objectionThe antitrust watchdog sent a “Statement of Objection” to Amazon this morning that said letting it buy iRobot for $1.4 billion may lower competition in robot vacuum cleaners.EC had launched an in-depth investigation into the Amazon-iRobot deal in July. It is slated to announce its final verdict on that probe on February 14th.Last week, Alex Kantrowitz of Big Technology said Amazon which invested $4.0 billion in Anthropic to expand its footprint in artificial intelligence in September could benefit from the recent OpenAI episode.Shares of the tech behemoth are currently up a whopping 70% versus the start of 2023.
Amazon responds to the European CommissionAmazon.com Inc will continue to work closely with the European Commission to address concerns it raised on Monday, as per a spokesperson of the Nasdaq-listed giant.
We believe Amazon can offer a company like iRobot the resources to accelerate innovation and invest in critical features while lowering prices for consumers.
Note that the deal is also being reviewed in the United States by the Federal Trade Commission. The Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom, however, has cleared it already.Today’s development follows a report from Reuters just days ago that said Amazon could soon receive unconditional approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of iRobot Corporation that makes Roomba.More By This Author:Zscaler Committed To ‘Long-term Growth’ After A Solid Q1
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