The European Commission, the bloc’s antitrust body, must give the green light to the deal by February 14, 2024
Shares in iRobot, a manufacturer of automatic vacuum cleaners, soared before the market opened this Friday (24.Nov.2023), in New York. The episode took place after Reuters report that the Amazon was close to obtaining EU (European Union) approval to acquire the company for US$1.4 billion.
According to the news agency, which cited 3 sources familiar with the matter, the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust body, must give the green light to the deal without imposing conditions. The decision must be announced by February 14th. The Commission declined to comment on the matter.
Amazon’s purchase of iRobot, announced in July last year, aims to integrate the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner into a range of the giant’s smart home devices. e-commerceincluding thermostats and the Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon reduced the bid amount by about 15% after iRobot took on new debt.
The acquisition raised some concerns earlier this year. The European Commission argued that the company could reduce competition in the smart vacuum cleaner market and reinforce its dominance as an online sales platform.
The stance reflected growing skepticism from other competition regulators about more mergers between big technology companies and smaller players, which could concentrate vast pools of customer data in the hands of a few companies.
With information from Investing Brazil
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