Bankrupted Roomba’s maker gets taken over, and the robot vacuum lives on for now

GG, what’s gonna happen to my Roomba?

Despite the bankruptcy filing, iRobot will continue operating as usual. The company will proceed with the product development roadmap and maintain its presence across global markets.

More importantly, existing Roomba users are not expected to experience any disruption to app functionality or product support.

Once the dominant player in the robot vacuum market, iRobot has struggled in recent years to compete with lower-priced Chinese brands. This led to a prolonged decline in profits.

The US tariffs also did not help the company. Roomba robot vacuums were manufactured in Vietnam, which meant that iRobot has been significantly affected by a 46% import duty.

The bankruptcy filing follows a failed acquisition attempt by Amazon. Originally announced in 2022, Amazon wanted to acquire iRobot for $1.7 billion. That deal ultimately collapsed due to antitrust scrutiny and privacy concerns.

Source: Roomba (newsroom)