The proposed $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot Corp, the company that makes the Roomba vacuum, by Amazon.com Inc. was approved by Britain’s antitrust regulator on Friday.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) declared that it had come to the conclusion that the agreement wouldn’t raise any issues with regard to competition in the UK.
Amazon is committed to assisting governing authorities in their work, a representative for the company said. “We’re pleased with the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s decision.” We anticipate hearing soon about rulings of a similar nature from additional regulators.
The deal, which was announced in August of last year as Amazon sought to increase the number of its smart home products, which already include the Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security systems, wall-mounted smart displays, and a robot that resembles a dog named Astro, was the subject of a “Phase 1” investigation by the CMA in April.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are suspicious of Big Tech purchasing smaller competitors, particularly those who have access to large numbers of user data, and often seek fixes in exchange for allowing such acquisitions.
“It marks a significant milestone, and both companies are continuing to work cooperatively with other relevant regulators in their review of the merger,” iRobot CEO Colin Angle said in a statement.
As a result of the news, shares of the US-listed company iRobot increased 18%, while Amazon’s stock fell 1.2%.
According to Alex Haffner, competition partner at UK law firm Fladgate, “In reality, the ‘fundamentals’ of this deal mean that the CMA’s assessment was far less controversial than in other tech-based cases given in particular iRobot’s low market share.”
The EU antitrust authorities will decide by July 6 whether to approve the transaction.
The iRobot deal is being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission, which is anticipated to sue Amazon.com for antitrust violations. Although it has acknowledged that it has complied with the agency’s document requests, the online store has declined to comment on the timing.
The FTC issued a warning letter stating particular concerns with the transaction after Amazon.com completed a prior transaction, its $3.5 billion acquisition of primary care provider One Medical in February, but took no further action.
