A LONG-RUNNING tech giant famed for making robot vacuum cleaners is on the brink of collapse.
iRobot has been trying to find a buyer but the search has ground to a halt.
The beleaguered firm says negotiations with the last interested party failed to take off.
Massachusetts-based iRobot has been in the business since 1990, mostly making consumer robots such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner and autonomous mops.
In the early days, the company made military robots and its tech was even used for search and rescue after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Bosses had entered talks with Amazon about a possible $1.4billion takeover.
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But in January last year it was announced that Amazon had abandoned the deal over doubts that the acquisition would be approved by regulators in the EU.
As a result, almost a third of the company’s workforce was laid off – some 350 employees, including chair and CEO Colin Angle.
Back in March the firm warned in a filing that it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue without finding a suitable buyer.
Now the last remaining possible bidder is out as they offered “significantly lower” than its stock price over recent months, iRobot said.
“We currently are not in advanced negotiations with any alternative counterparties to a potential sale or strategic transaction,” the company said in its latest filing.
“As such, there remains no assurance that our review of strategic alternatives will result in any transaction or outcome.”
iRobot’s stock price has tumbled since the announcement.
What would happen to my Roomba if iRobot closed down?
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
While things look grim for iRobot at the moment we’re still a way off any devastating prospects like complete closure.
However, if the company did cease it does raise questions about how the robots would continue to function.
They all pretty much rely on an app and some features use the cloud too.
So, there would be no software updates and nor would there be any customer support for errors.
Some features might still work but the ability to do things like schedule cleans might stop.
