iRobot Chapter: a Timeline of the Roomba Maker’s Steep Decline

iRobot was based in 1990 by three roboticists from the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how — Colin Angle, Helen Greiner, and Rodney Brooks — who had a “imaginative and prescient of constructing sensible robots a actuality,” the corporate says on its web site.

iRobot centered on designing robots for space-related analysis and navy use in its early years.

In 1998, the Massachusetts-based firm gained a contract from the Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company, often called DARPA, to construct a tactical cellular robotic. This led to the event of iRobot’s PackBot, which was later utilized in search operations at Manhattan’s Floor Zero following the 9/11 terrorist assaults.

In 2002, iRobot had its shopper breakthrough with its debut of the Roomba, its iconic self-cleaning disc-shaped vacuum.

Over the following twenty years, the corporate went on to launch dozens of Roomba fashions. It has offered over 50 million fashions globally since.

iRobot went public in November 2005 with its IPO priced at $24 per share. It started buying and selling its shares on the Nasdaq beneath the ticker image IRBT.

By then, the corporate was well-known for its robotic vacuums, and by 2013, iRobot had offered over 10 million dwelling cleansing robots.

iRobot noticed its annual income peak in 2021 at $1.56 billion, however gross sales have been falling ever since.

Gross sales dropped, partly, because of stiffer competitors from Chinese language rivals like Dreame, Roborock, and Ecovacs, in addition to different manufacturers comparable to Shark and Samsung.

Amazon agreed to purchase iRobot in 2022 for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction, however the deal collapsed two years later with the businesses saying there was “no path to regulatory approval within the European Union.”

The identical day the businesses introduced that the proposed merger was scrapped in January 2024, iRobot reduce 31% of its workers, and Angle, iRobot’s cofounder and longtime CEO, additionally stepped down.

In a March 2025 earnings report, iRobot mentioned there was “substantial doubt” concerning the firm’s capability to proceed.

iRobot tried to discover a new purchaser after its take care of Amazon collapsed. In an October 2025 regulatory submitting, it mentioned the final remaining potential acquirer pulled out “following a prolonged interval of unique negotiations.”

The corporate warned that with out recent funding, it “could also be pressured to considerably curtail or stop operations and would doubtless search chapter safety.”

iRobot filed for Chapter 11 on December 14 and mentioned the corporate can be acquired by its China-based main contract producer and lender, Picea Robotics, by way of a court-supervised course of. Underneath the deal, iRobot can be taken non-public.

The corporate mentioned it expects to proceed to function as regular and doesn’t anticipate any disruption to its core operations, together with its app and ongoing product assist.

“The transaction will strengthen our monetary place and can assist ship continuity for our customers, clients, and companions,” mentioned iRobot CEO Gary Cohen.