Roomba Maker Lays Off 31% of Staff after Amazon Terminates iRobot Acquisition

[Tsing]

iRobot has announced that it's laying off 31% of its workforce following the news that Amazon will no longer be acquiring the company due to regulatory hurdles ("no path to regulatory approval in the European Union").

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[Grimlakin]

Ouch. Amazon stock took a dip when the purchase was canned as well. Oddly.. not like Amazon couldn't do it. It was canned by regulations.

 

[Uvilla]

Why block this, theres so many options for this superfluous product. Thats crazy.

 

[Brian_B]

Why block this, theres so many options for this superfluous product. Thats crazy.

That is a good question.
EU says it's because Amazon is a major retailer, and would have the the incentive and ability to unfairly promote it's own products and/or severely restrict the competition.