#irobot-bankruptcy

#irobot-bankruptcy

iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with its Chinese manufacturing partner-cum-creditor poised to pick over the bones. The Roomba has been around for more than two decades, garnering great brand recognition and near-constant hardware and software innovation. It could turn a corner, but iRobot couldn't turn a profit. The company blamed a barrage of reasons for failure, including shipping delays, consumer timidity, and the joy of tariffs, with others pointing the finger at an army of low-cost knock-offs. Perhaps.

The goal, of course, is to avoid the abuses that can happen in monopolies and with the goal of protecting consumer choice and protecting innovation. What happened was that iRobot and Amazon came together for the expressed purpose of creating more innovation, more consumer choice, at a time when iRobot's trajectory was honestly different from where it was several years earlier.

Following Black Friday, Cyber Monday is one of the best times to buy a robot vacuum at a discount. I track and review these devices all year, and the price drops during Cyber Week really are the biggest we see. This is the moment to upgrade or grab a new robot vacuum while these deals are still live. Also: Our favorite Cyber Monday deals live now