The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed which is evaluating Amazon’s proposed acquisition of robotic vacuum cleaner maker iRobot.
The case is still at its earliest possible stage, with the CMA essentially soliciting comments from relevant stakeholders to establish whether there may be a “substantial lessening of competition” in the UK as a result of iRobot’s purchase of iRobot. Amazon.
The CMA has not provided any specific deadlines or deadlines for when it will announce whether it will proceed with an official investigation.
Smart House
Founded about 30 years ago at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), iRobot is probably best known for its Roomba-branded self-contained vacuums, though it also offers tangential products capable of mopping floors.
With Amazon’s gradual foray into the smart home, as well as its own dabbling in home robotics, including integrations with Roombas, it wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise that iRobot was a tempting proposition for Amazon, which submitted a $1.7K proposal. million for publicly traded companies. iRobot in August. But against a backdrop of increasing regulatory scrutiny against Big Tech, it came as no surprise that the iRobot megabucks deal eventually caught the attention of authorities around the world.
Across the water in continental Europe, EU regulators apparently they are preparing to investigate Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot on privacy grounds, due to concerns about how Amazon could combine data from the two companies to gain competitive advantage. In its home market, meanwhile, Amazon is already in the crosshairs of regulators as part of a multifaceted investigation covering acquisitions, competition, privacy and more. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently evaluating an official investigation into its deal with iRobot, though, notably, the FTC recently gave the green light to Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical. of dollars.
As for the UK, it currently has to deal with a bunch of antitrust deals. Just yesterday, regulator Ofcom revealed that it was preparing to refer the local cloud infrastructure market for in-depth investigation, with Amazon’s and Microsoft’s AWS specifically in the crosshairs. Microsoft’s excellent $68.7 billion bid for Activision is also in the CMA’s line of sight, as is VMware’s planned $61 billion acquisition of Broadcom. And about 18 months ago, the CMA ordered Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to sell Giphy, which it had bought the previous year for $400 million.
So while today’s news doesn’t necessarily mean Amazon’s iRobot deal is in jeopardy, it’s clear the UK has an appetite for interrogating Big Tech’s M&A efforts. And given that EU regulators and While the US is also considering a possible in-depth investigation, it would not be too surprising if the UK decided to launch an official investigation.
TechCrunch has reached out to Amazon for comment and will update here when we hear back.
