Roomba's parent company that has sold millions cleaning robotsfiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday after 35 years in business.
In a press release Sunday, Massachusetts-based robotics company iRobot said it had filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware County Court.
The company said it would be fully acquired by its main manufacturer and lender, vacuum cleaner maker Shenzhen PICEA. According to the release, Picea has research and development and production facilities in China and Vietnam.
The deal with Picea will allow iRobot to continue operating, develop new products, make “timely payments to suppliers and creditors” and meet its obligations to employees, it said.
Under the terms of the deal, iRobot will become a private company owned by Picea, and its common shares will be removed from the stock exchanges.
iRobot was founded in 1990 by three roboticists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2002, the company introduced Roomba, its iconic disc-shaped robot vacuum cleaner.
The bankruptcy deal follows several quarters of weak sales and money crisis. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company wrote that it had $24.8 million in cash as of Sept. 27, down from $40.6 million as of June 28.
iRobot said it withdrew $5 million in restricted cash on Sept. 27, leaving it with “no sources from which it could raise additional capital.”
The company's third-quarter revenue of $145.8 million fell about 25% year over year, with U.S. sales down 33%.
Last month, the company warned that iRobot's last possible buyer had backed out of the deal, sending it into bankruptcy.
iRobot suffered a setback attempt to acquire Amazon. In 2022, Amazon announced it would buy iRobot for $1.7 billion, but broke the deal in January 2024, citing regulatory hurdles in the US and Europe.
The collapse of the Amazon deal hit iRobot hard. On the same day that Amazon was announced, iRobot said it would lay off 31% of its staff and its CEO Colin Engle would step down.
iRobot's stock price has fallen more than 50% over the past year and more than 90% over the past five years.
