After Amazon’s acquisition of the Roomba-maker fell apart, it ran out of options.
iRobot, which brought robotic vacuum cleaners to the masses with its iconic Roomba models, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Massachusetts-based company plans to sell all assets to its primary supplier, a Chinese company known as Picea Robotics. If approved by a bankruptcy court, the move would allow iRobot to “continue operating in the ordinary course, pursue its product development roadmap, and maintain its global footprint,” iRobot wrote in a press release.
The company expects the deal to close in February 2026, but says it will continue to operate “with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships or ongoing product support.” That means your Roomba should continue to clean normally and you’ll be able to get consumables and replacement parts.
However, investors of common stock “will experience a total loss and not receive recovery on their investment” if the deal is approved, iRobot stated. The company didn’t discuss how the move might affect its employees in the US or elsewhere.
Find a way to operate the device offline RIGHT NOW, and disable firmware updates IMMEDIATELY. We all know this wIll become a FUTO bounty in a matter of months.
It needs to still support replacement parts
How much are the collected locations and house layouts of the roomba owners worth? As early tech adopters, they might be interesting targets for burglers.
I have a knockoff Roomba that doesn’t have any Internet or digital connection. It’s really dumb.
I always hated the term robot vacuum. Since they’re going out of business, I say we take Roomba as the name. Make it like Kleenex or Xerox.
Gonna own their patent portfolio. Will be interesting to see if they start wielding it.
“if”?
