Amazon fails to offer remedies to EU concerns over iRobot acquisition

Shares in iRobot plunged overnight on Wednesday, after Amazon failed to provide solutions to address concerns raised by EU competition regulators regarding its $1.4bn acquisition of the US domestic robotics giant.

The European Commission had set a deadline of Wednesday for Amazon to address its concerns over the proposed acquisition of iRobot, whose most popular product line is the ‘Roomba’ autonomous vacuum cleaners.

In November, EC competition officials expressed concerns to Amazon that the acquisition might stifle competition within the robot vacuum cleaner market, Reuters reported.

At the time, it invited Amazon to propose remedies to mitigate potential antitrust issues.

According to Reuters, the EC’s lawyers did not initially share its concerns, leading to expectations of unconditional EU clearance for the acquisition.

However, the lawyers later withdrew their objections to the statement, aligning with the competition officials' concerns.

The absence of any proposed remedies from Amazon meant there were now two potential outcomes - either unconditional approval from the EC, or a European veto of the acquisition.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.