The UK’s competition regulator has cleared Amazon’s £1.33 billion ($1.7bn) takeover of Roomba robot vacuum maker iRobot.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now concluded that the deal would not stifle competition in the UK.
Amazon agreed to acquire iRobot in August in an attempt to shore up its smart-home ambitions. The tech giant’s range of domestic gadgets include smart speakers and a Ring camera doorbell. It also launched a home-monitoring robot named Astro in 2021 and is developing an indoor surveillance drone.
The CMA launched a probe into the acquisition in April, over broad concerns about Amazon’s power to dominate the fledgling smart-home market, and squeeze out robot vacuum rivals.
Today, the watchdog said it was satisfied that the deal would not harm competition. The CMA concluded that iRobot’s market position, and the robot vacuum market in general, is “modest” in the UK. Therefore, it said that Amazon had no real incentive to close out rivals from its online shopping store, or to create its own competitive product if the deal was blocked.
The CMA also found that the data gathered by robot vacuums would not give Amazon any real advantage over other smart-home companies. In addition, it noted that there are several alternatives that boast the same capabilities as iRobot that could provide similar smart-home offerings.
Colin Raftery, senior director of Mergers at the CMA, said: “More people are choosing to use ‘smart’ tech in their homes.
“That’s why it’s important to ensure tech firms that already benefit from powerful positions aren’t able to use those positions to undermine competitors at the expense of UK consumers and businesses.”
While the deal has been cleared in the UK, it remains under review by the Federal Trade Commission in Amazon’s native US.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We’re pleased with the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s decision and are committed to supporting regulatory bodies in their work. We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon.”
