Amazon and Roomba-maker iRobot announced on Monday morning they would scrap their planned $1.7 billion acquisition, after the European Commission said the deal would restrict competition in robot vacuums.
The companies abandoned the deal amid rising legal challenges to tech mergers, as regulators around the world raise concerns about the ways large tech companies have built their dominance by buying up smaller competitors.
“We’re disappointed that Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot could not proceed,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president and general counsel. “Undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles discourage entrepreneurs, who should be able to see an acquisition as one path to success, and that hurts both consumers and competition — the very things that regulators say they’re trying to protect.”
Tech companies have rarely walked away from mergers amid antitrust challenges, especially in the United States, where companies including Microsoft and Meta have been successfully challenging such lawsuits in court.
But international lawmakers are increasingly deterring deals. Last year, Adobe called off its $20 billion acquisition of the design company Figma because of antitrust challenges in the United Kingdom.