Amazon buys iRobot, maker of the Roomba
Amazon has signed an agreement to take over iRobotthe manufacturer, among other devices, of some of the best cleaning robots on the market, the famous Roomba.
Amazon had launched Astro, its own cleaning robot, a year ago now
The agreement has been closed at 1,700 million dollars, an amount that the online giant will disburse to take over this company that has been developing cleaning robots since 20o2 and whose main product, Roomba, gives the name to any cleaning robot in street slang.
Her popularity has led her to sell millions of Roomba robots worldwide. Earlier this year, he even released an operating system that incorporates Artificial Intelligence for his devices.
Roomba robots “map” the home they are going to clean, and it is possibly this information that has served as an incentive for Amazon to acquire the company. It is about millions of data that allow us to “map” the addresses of millions of customers, albeit anonymously.
But this information could be very useful for Amazon, already present in millions of homes with its Alexa-enabled devices and Echo smart speakers. The integration of these devices with the cleaning robots seems obvious as soon as the acquisition is complete.
In addition, the company already launched its own cleaning robot a year ago, Astro, which until now had not enjoyed great popularity, but which may in the future incorporate the tools developed by iRobot and, of course, the Roomba OS operating system.
As Amazon has pointed out in an official statement, the addition of iRobot products to its catalog will help the company to “explore new ways to make users’ lives easier and more fun.”
In any case, it is not yet known if the company will maintain the popular brand and the details of the integration will have to be discussed, although Amazon has indicated that its intention is for the CEO of iRobot to continue working for the firm.
