The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened a review of Amazon.com’s $1.7 billion takeover of robotic vacuum cleaner maker iRobot Corp to determine whether the deal violates antitrust law, Politico reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. antitrust review by iRobot is wide-ranging and would include both mutual competition and whether the deal would unlawfully increase Amazon’s market share in both the connected devices market and the retail market in general, the report added. Amazon declined to comment, while iRobot and the FTC did not immediately respond.
The e-commerce giant has been steadily expanding its line of devices with additional speakers with the Alexa voice assistant and home security doorbells and cameras from Ring, which it acquired in 2018. In August, Amazon announced its $61 per share cash deal to acquire iRobot, maker of the Roomba robot vacuum. The world’s largest online retailer is pushing to expand its stable of smart home devices as well as expand the e-commerce giant’s virtual healthcare, adding brick-and-mortar doctor’s offices for the first time. The online retailer agreed to buy primary care provider One Medical in July. One Medical said Friday that the U.S. antitrust regulator has requested more information from the company and Amazon about the online retailer’s $3.49 billion acquisition of the primary care provider.
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