Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

hurturue wrote: post #3

They outsourced production to China thinking that they can just do the marketing in US. Now they learnt that Chinese can do marketing too.

It's not just marketing, iRobot basically stopped innovating. For commodity items like robot vacuums or pool cleaners, there is a relentless pressure to innovate. You can't simply coast or else you will soon find yourself left behind.

This is a good article to describe the viewpoint of Chinese iRobot competitor https://kr-asia.com/at-usd-90-per-unit-seauto-is-quietly-swe...

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#7

Post by xnx » Mon, Dec 15, 2025, 1:08 AM UTC

So the FTC blocked Amazon's acquisition of iRobot in January 2024 and now China gains control of the assests for a bargain? Another stupid application of antitrust.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#8

Post by makeitdouble » Mon, Dec 15, 2025, 1:10 AM UTC

hurturue wrote: post #3

They outsourced production to China thinking that they can just do the marketing in US. Now they learnt that Chinese can do marketing too.

How many general public appliance makers out there have a competitive production line outside of China ?

As I understand the only countries where one could barely pull that off would be Korea or Japan, and the local makers are mostly giving up as they lose too much on cost.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#9

Post by allears » Mon, Dec 15, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

xnx wrote: post #4

Non-paywalled article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-15/robot-vac...

Nope, still got a paywall

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#10

Post by nobodyandproud » Mon, Dec 15, 2025, 1:15 AM UTC

krackers wrote: post #6

hurturue wrote: post #3

They outsourced production to China thinking that they can just do the marketing in US. Now they learnt that Chinese can do marketing too.

It's not just marketing, iRobot basically stopped innovating. For commodity items like robot vacuums or pool cleaners, there is a relentless pressure to innovate. You can't simply coast or else you will soon find yourself left behind. This is a good article to describe the viewpoint of Chinese iRobot competitor https://kr-asia.com/at-usd-90-per-unit-seauto-is-quietly-swe...

The best robovac was Neato. Lidar and mapping 13 years ago. No cloud.

Too bad our American leaders sold us out.