Amazon spends over 10 billion to acquire "Big Seller", facing antitrust investigation in the UK and the US

When Amazon announced its $1.7 billion (about 11.6 billion yuan) acquisition of iRobot, a manufacturer of sweeping robots, it caused quite a stir in the industry and even attracted the attention of the U.S. Antitrust Bureau.

Recently, even the UK antitrust agency has noticed the acquisition and said it would investigate the deal. The regulator is considering whether the deal will lead to a "substantial" reduction in competition in any goods or services market in the UK.

iRobot was founded in 1990. In 2002, the company officially entered the home robot market and launched the practical and affordable iRobot sweeping robot. Only two years later, the sales of its sweeping robots exceeded 1 million units, and it was listed on the Nasdaq in 2005 .

In addition to sales on its own official website, iRobot has also early on entered platforms such as Amazon. Many of its popular products have accumulated considerable sales and reviews on Amazon. Some products have even been included in the BS list of the category and have been featured products for Amazon Prime Day events for eight consecutive years.

As a technology company, although iRobot cannot be considered a traditional Amazon seller, its reliance on Amazon and its huge size make it a "big seller" to some extent.

Antitrust groups have warned that Amazon's acquisition of iRobot could give it a monopoly in the "smart home market ," and the Federal Trade Commission is already reviewing the deal.

Foxglove Legal , a UK-based tech watchdog , wrote to the UK antitrust authority saying it had serious concerns that Amazon wanted to acquire iRobot in an effort to kill it off before the market could become heavily competitive.

In addition, if Amazon successfully acquires iRobot, then Amazon's intelligent voice system Alex will most likely be associated with the iRobot sweeping robot, and users' privacy information may be violated.

In the future, iRobot vacuum cleaners may collect more information than just dust as they move across the floor. Amazon will be able to see the size of the room and the distance between sofas, tables, lamps and other household items, which will be invaluable to the company.

In response, an Amazon spokesperson said: "We welcome the opportunity to combine our experience with iRobot's great products to provide consumers who choose to buy iRobot vacuum cleaners with a better shopping experience. We are currently working with relevant regulators to review merger-related matters.

Amazon

Acquisition

iRobot