U.S. begins antitrust review of Amazon’s takeover of vacuum maker iRobot – Politico

(Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Commerce Fee has begun a assessment of Amazon.com’s $1.7 billion takeover of robotic vacuum maker iRobot Corp to determine if the deal violates antitrust regulation, Politico reported on Friday, citing folks accustomed to the matter.

The U.S. anti-trust physique’s iRobot assessment is wide-ranging and would come with each head-to-head competitors and whether or not the deal would illegally increase Amazon’s market share in each the linked machine market and the retail market on the whole, the report added.

Amazon declined to remark, whereas iRobot and the FTC didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters’ request for remark.

The e-commerce big has steadily expanded its units lineup with extra audio system showcasing its Alexa voice assistant and with residence safety doorbells and cameras from Ring, which it acquired in 2018.

Amazon in August introduced its all-cash deal of $61 per share to amass iRobot, maker of the robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba.

The world’s largest on-line retailer is pushing to broaden its steady of sensible residence units in addition to increasing the e-commerce big’s digital healthcare and including brick-and-mortar docs’ workplaces for the primary time.

The web retailer in July had agreed to purchase main care supplier One Medical.

One Medical on Friday stated the U.S. anti-trust physique had sought extra data from the corporate and Amazon concerning the main care supplier’s $3.49 billion acquisition by the web retailer.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru)