Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN -1.07%
is buying Roomba maker
iRobot Corp.
IRBT 19.24%
for $1.7 billion, including debt, as the online retailer adds another connected-home product to its portfolio.
Amazon on Friday said it is paying $61 a share for iRobot in an all-cash deal.
The price represents a 22% premium to iRobot’s closing price of $49.99 on Thursday.
iRobot Chief Executive
Colin Angle
will remain in his position upon completion of the acquisition, which requires approval from shareholders.
iRobot shares rose 19.3% in premarket trading, while Amazon shares fell 0.8%.
iRobot introduced its Roomba vacuum in 2002. The wireless, smart-vacuum learns and maps spaces to clean dust and messes.
Roomba would join other Amazon-owned products like the Alexa virtual assistant speaker and Ring video doorbell that together give the retailer more ways to power smart homes.
Roomba was recently a featured product in Amazon’s Prime Day event for the eighth consecutive year.
iRobot would be the fourth-largest acquisition by Amazon, ranking behind the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, an $8.5 billion purchase of movie studio MGM in March and last month’s agreement to buy 1Life Healthcare for $3.9 billion.
The deal came as iRobot reported a 30% decrease in second-quarter sales, which came in at $255.4 million, and a net loss that widened to $43.4 million, or $1.60 a share, from $2.8 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
iRobot said that the latest quarter’s results were hurt by reduced orders, supply-chain problems and a stronger dollar.
Write to Connor Hart at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8