Roomba maker IRobot filed for bankruptcy and will go private after being acquired by its Chinese supplier Picea Robotics.

Founded 35 years ago, the Massachusetts company pioneered the development of home vacuum robots and grew to become one of the most recognizable American consumer brands.

Over the years, it lost ground to Chinese competitors with less-expensive products. This year, the company was clobbered by President Trump's tariffs. At its peak during the pandemic, IRobot was valued at $3 billion.

The bankruptcy filing, which happened on Sunday, has raised fear among Roomba users who are worried about "bricking," which is when a device stops working or is rendered useless due to a lack of software updates.

IRobot has tried assuaging the fears, saying that it will continue operations with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs or product support.

The majority of IRobot products sold in the U.S. are manufactured in Vietnam, which was hit with a 46% tariff, eroding profits and competitiveness of the company. The tariffs increased IRobot's costs by $23 million in 2025, according to its court filings.

In 2024, IRobot's revenue stood at $681 million, about 24% lower than the previous year. The company owed hundreds of millions in debt and long-term loans. Once the court-supervised transaction is complete, IRobot will become a private company owned by contract manufacturer Picea Robotics.

Today, nearly 70% of the global smart vacuum robot market is dominated by Chinese brands, according to IDC, with Roborock and Ecovacs leading the charge.

The sale of a famous household brand to a Chinese competitor has prompted complaints from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and politicians, citing the case as a failure of antitrust policy.

Amazon originally planned to acquire IRobot for $1.4 billion, but in early 2024, it terminated the merger after scrutiny from European regulators, supported by then-Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. IRobot never recovered from that.

The central concern for the merger was that Amazon could unduly favor IRobot products in its marketplace, according to Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust and innovation at the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Buying IRobot could have expanded Amazon's portfolio of home devices, including Ring and Alexa, he said, bolstering American competition in the robot vacuum market.

"Blocking this deal was a strategic error," said Dirk Auer, director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics. "The consequence is that we have handed an easy win to Chinese rivals. IRobot was the only significant Western player left in this space. By denying them the resources needed to compete, regulators have left American consumers with fewer alternatives to Chinese dominance."

"While IRobot has become a peripheral player recently, Amazon had the specific capacity to reverse those fortunes — specifically by integrating IRobot into its successful ecosystem of home devices," Auer said. "The best way to handle global competition is to ensure U.S. firms are free to merge, scale and innovate, rather than trying to thwart Chinese firms via regulation. We should be enabling our companies to compete, not restricting their ability to find a path forward."

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.