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Amazon acquires irobot $1.7 billion





On Friday, the retail juggernaut announced a $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, the manufacturer of the Roomba series of robotic vacuum cleaners.


Although not yet approved, many privacy experts are already concerned about the deal.


Some may have taken the acquisition news as a mere value investment by Amazon's savvy management team, as the acquisition price, while 20% higher than the pre-announcement share price, is still 75% below iRobot's all-time high.


According to a joint statement, the all-cash deal announced Friday is worth around $1.7 billion.


"Since we started iRobot, our team has been on a mission to create innovative, practical products that make customers' lives easier, leading to inventions like the Roomba and iRobot OS,"

said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot in a statement.


"Amazon shares our passion for building thoughtful innovations that empower people to do more at home, and I cannot think of a better place for our team to continue our mission. I'm hugely excited to be a part of Amazon and to see what we can build together for customers in the years ahead."

Bloomberg reported that the deal had raised some alarms with data-privacy experts and antitrust researchers, who say this could lead to Amazon gaining personal information from inside a user's home.

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