iRobot's Roomba was once the biggest name in robot vacuums—so big that some still use it synonymously with the entire product category. So what happened to the company that caused it to fall from its high position to the point where it was forced to declare bankruptcy, saved from oblivion by takeover by Chinese contract manufacturer Picea?
Expensive approach
iRobot co-founder and previous CEO Colin Engle called Picea's takeover “deeply disappointing” and “inevitable,” blaming the collapse of the potential Amazon an acquisition that was rejected by regulators due to the situation iRobot ended up in (you can read his statement to TechRadar is here.)
Cohen, however, believes the problems began long before the acquisition became possible.
My predecessor's idea of connected homes and machine vision technology was great, but we couldn't implement it.
Gary Cohen, CEO of iRobot
“The Amazon deal was a big setback for the company, but there were many years of problems that led to the situation we're in, and it's important to highlight those without disparaging the previous team,” he told me. “My predecessor was a visionary, and he was a brilliant man, and […] His idea of connected homes and machine vision technology was great, but we couldn't make it happen.
“When I joined the company in May 2024, it became obvious to me and to some of the people I assigned to help me with this restructuring that we needed to change the way we do business,” Cohen told me.
Cohen recalls inheriting high-fixed-cost contracts and “over-engineered” products. He explains that at that time, all tooling, design and purchasing took place in the US, with only final production taking place overseas. This made the process very expensive.
A bold decision was made to abandon the entire outdated product line and replace itand under Cohen, the company also developed a more integrated (and cost-effective) relationship with its manufacturer—which at the time was the same Picea Robotics that now owns iRobot.
In the previous model, the contract manufacturer was actually assigned at the very end as the “screwdriver” who just assembled the product. The new approach allowed iRobot to define its desired specifications, but Picea became more involved in “engineering, tooling, purchasing and even testing.”
This wasn't enough to save iRobot from being sold, but it put the company on a more profitable trajectory and allowed it to develop a close working relationship with Picea.
High cost, low satisfaction
High costs were only part of the problem. “We weren't competitive in the marketplace,” Cohen continues. “The cost of our goods was too high. The products were difficult to produce, but, importantly, we were not pleasing consumers.”
iRobot lost their market opportunity because they weren't close enough to the consumer or didn't bother to listen to the consumer.
Gary Cohen, CEO of iRobot
Cohen says that if he had worked for the company before, he would have put customer needs first. “At a time when iRobot was facing some of its competitive challenges, I would have taken the competition more seriously and created a consumer model,” he tells me.
“For example, consumers wanted these combination mops and vacuum cleaners. The iRobot team at the time said, “No, we're going to design a better mop and a better vacuum cleaner.” It was great from a technical point of view, but consumers didn't go there. So [iRobot] lost an opportunity in the market because they weren’t close enough to the consumer or didn’t bother to listen to them.”
iRobot also fell behind in developing a multi-function dock that not only emptied the bot's small on-board trash can, but could also do things like fill the water tank and even wash and dry mop pads. He released his first attempt in 2024 – Roomba Combo 10 Max. – but by Cohen’s own admission, it “wasn’t the best or most competitive product.”
“So [at that time] we are losing market share in Europe because we are not participating. And these are all strategic decisions that were made several years ago.”
Tariff shocks
Of course, external factors also played a role. Cohen tried to sell iRobot in the first half of 2025, but big changes in U.S. tariff policy created too much uncertainty for potential buyers.
“It really narrowed our portfolio of options because there were a lot of companies that were interested in us and had the impact of tariffs, and they said, ‘Well, there's too much uncertainty. We can't buy the company right now,” Cohen recalls. “We finally found one company that was really interested in buying us, but they couldn't come to an agreement with our main creditor at the time, which was Carlyle. And so the deal fell apart in October.”
Cohen had to quickly pivot to try to save the company. “Chapter Seven [liquidation bankruptcy] “I didn’t want this to happen,” he told me. “I had invested too much in the company and the employees, so we went to Picea and asked, are you interested in buying the company? And that’s how it materialized.”
So what does the future look like now, under Pikea's leadership? As for the immediate effects, Cohen says “everything is as usual”and previously developed products have already been presented to European retailers, with their launch planned for spring 2026.
In the long term he feeling confident that this will change the situationwith a new consumer-focused approach aimed at making robot vacuum cleaners accessible to a wider audience. We will watch with interest.
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