(Bloomberg/Reshmi Basu and Dorothy Ma) — iRobot Corp., the corporate that revolutionized robotic vacuum cleaners within the early 2000s with its Roomba mannequin, filed for chapter and proposed handing over management to its predominant Chinese language provider.
The Massachusetts-based client robotic maker, which is at the moment listed, will likely be taken over by China’s Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co. and a subsidiary of the Chinese language agency, in keeping with a press launch. The frequent inventory of the corporate, based in 1990 by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, will likely be worn out below the proposed Chapter 11 plan filed in Delaware on Sunday.
iRobot loved preliminary success with the Roomba that it debuted in 2002 and which rapidly turned synonymous with autonomous vacuum cleaners. However earnings on the agency, which has bought greater than 40 million house robots, started to say no within the post-Covid period, hit by provide chain points and cheaper rivals. The agency warned of potential chapter earlier this month.
In 2022, Amazon.com made a proposal that might have turned the corporate’s fortunes, however it collapsed over a conflict with European Union competitors authorities.
iRobot obtained greater than $90 million in compensation for the failed deal, however a part of it was used to pay advisory charges and to repay a portion of a $200 million mortgage prolonged by Carlyle Group Inc. as a bridge whereas the Amazon transaction closed. Final month, Shenzhen PICEA subsidiary Santrum Hong Kong Co. acquired the $191 million of excellent debt in principal and curiosity from the US funding agency, and PICEA has been in talks with iRobot since then to safe new capital and handle the excellent debt.
The chapter plan will permit iRobot to stay as a going concern and proceed to satisfy its commitments to staff and make well timed funds in full to distributors and different collectors for quantities owed all through the court-supervised course of, the corporate stated in a press release. Within the submitting, the corporate listed between $100 million and $500 million of belongings and liabilities.
–With help from Irene García Pérez.
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