Amazon is Buying iRobot For $1.7 Billion - Slashdot
source link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/08/05/1438229/amazon-is-buying-irobot-for-17-billion
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Amazon is Buying iRobot For $1.7 Billion
Amazon is Buying iRobot For $1.7 Billion (techcrunch.com) 72
Posted by msmash
on Friday August 05, 2022 @10:40AM from the how-about-that dept.Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion. From a report: The home robotics firm, best known for pioneering the robotic vacuum, was founded in 1990 by MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab members Colin Angle, Rodney Brooks and Helen Greiner. Twelve years after its founding, the company introduced the Roomba, a brand that has since become synonymous with the branding, selling more than 30 million units as of 2020. Brooks and Greiner have gone on to found and lead several other companies, while Angle has remained on-board as CEO -- a position he will maintain post-acquisition. "Since we started iRobot, our team has been on a mission to create innovative, practical products that make customers' lives easier, leading to inventions like the Roomba and iRobot OS," CEO Colin Angle said in a release. "Amazon shares our passion for building thoughtful innovations that empower people to do more at home, and I cannot think of a better place for our team to continue our mission. I'm hugely excited to be a part of Amazon and to see what we can build together for customers in the years ahead."
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Most of their patents are going to expire if they haven't already. Fun fact: they have a LOT of patents on robotic vacuums.
There's a portion of the population (about 10%) actively trying to wall themselves off and leave the rest of use wallowing in dystopic povert
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Agreed, they want the talent for sure. Also, Bezos isn't the CEO.
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rsilvergun's stalker is now stalking IdancNmyCar?
If I didn't know any better, I'd say that all of our conservative trolls are just this one guy.
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I think it's u/Misinformation but only a quick guess. It's very confusing, I have no idea out of the numerous common posters here why I would be worth trolling. And the people trolled seem widely different. As you said, the only thing in common is we aren't alt-right conservatives or those virtually as extreme...
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This almost never works - when a giant company buys a small company for "talent", usually a sizable chunk of the talent leaves, because they didn't want to work for the big company (they could have done that already if they wanted).
So the buyer really is just left with the IP, not the talent that created it.
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I'm not sure I'd now want an iRobot product that is actively mapping my house and sending the info back to mothership Amazon.
There's reasons I don't have Alexa or other type devices in my home.
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Has irobot actually bought usable mapping technology at this point? I started buying neato vacs about 10 years ago and it was amazing how far ahead they were from irobot even thought irobot had an almost 20 year head start.
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Has irobot actually bought usable mapping technology at this point? I started buying neato vacs about 10 years ago and it was amazing how far ahead they were from irobot even thought irobot had an almost 20 year head start.
I have been using Neato...I have an old one and it did seem to be ahead of the iRobot at the time.
I'm guessing they've gotten better by now...?
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I have two Neato BotVacs (high end and a mid-end one). Both are excellent at cleaning, even carpet. The way they make straight lines without just bumping and bumbling around is a nice touch. They were also considerably cheaper than iRobots. At the time I purchased mine, iRobot was still using NiMH batteries while BotVac was switching over the Lion IIRC. The battery outlasts the pickup container, which is also larger than the iRobot. The filter used is/was better in the BotVac. Both Botvacs ar
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How many of them actually have an internet connection to send data back? I love my Roomba mop. It stores the map internally and gets a bearing from an infrared lighthouse. It doesn't have wifi. I would absolutely buy another one if it could be kept offline like mine.
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It sounds like we've had very different experiences here. I've been part of the opposite on several separate occasions with multi-year lock up agreements in place to keep key folks around after an acquisition is complete. From memory, I feel like most of those folks continued to stay on even after their agreements expire, but certainly not all do.
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nah most employees stay because they get incentives to, ie bonus and stock per at the end of each year they stay
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Most employees stay because most people hate job hunting and starting over (usually senority and assicated benifits from senority carry over.)
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The worse the new management is, the more employees bail out.
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You mean, the rich guys in a castle with high walls and the peasants in a slum below waiting for the leftovers
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Why do the workers need the rich guys? Why don't they start their own companies and make products for each other? Wouldn't that make more sense than complaining that some rich guy isn't paying them enough?
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Because they don't have any capital. So if they try to start a company they just get run out of business because they have to spend a huge amount of capital getting started and build that cost into their prices and the existing businesses will just drop their drawers until you go out of business. If all else fails the larger company with all the capital just waits for an economic downturn to severely weaken their competitor and buys them out. Just a natural forces of market consolidation.
You didn't real-
Apple is the most valuable company in America, yet they own no factories and manufacture nothing.
The only capital my employer provides is my laptop. I could replace it with about three days' wages.
A steel mill requires a lot of capital. A service business or tech business requires very little.
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huh? of course you need a lot of capital, tech employees are expensive, how are you going to pay them when you start a business?
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So, um, where did Amazon come from?
https://www.indiatoday.in/tech... [indiatoday.in]
Oops.
He wasn't complaining about the huge amount of capital yada yada yada....
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Didn't know it was just as simple as that -- thanks! Problems solved./sarcasm
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The ultra wealthy will have robots and automation making everything for them and they will have absolutely no need and no obligation for the peasantry. The king needed his peasants to till the land and make food for his knights. This new monarchy will only need a handful of engineers to keep the robots going. I suppose they'll hunt us for sport occasionally but other than that and the occasional weird sex thing they won't give us any thought.
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You do realize that Bezos' money for the yachts doesn't come from Amazon revenue, right? It's completely unrelated. He doesn't make much actual money from his position at Amazon. He creates wealth by being the largest shareholder.
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