iRobot, the company behind the iconic Roomba brand, warns investors its in trouble.
A day after launching a new line of Roomba vacuum cleaners, iRobot Corp. has warned investors that it could shut down in the next 12 months unless it can refinance its debt or find a buyer. According to its latest financial filings, iRobot is heavily in debt. It spent $3.6 million to amend the terms of a $200 million loan it took out in 2023 while a now-defunct deal with Amazon was in review — in order to get more time to figure out its next steps.
Since taking out that loan from the Carlyle Group and facing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, iRobot has not found a way to become profitable again and says it expects to incur losses for “the foreseeable future.” With no clear path to paying off the debt, the future looks bleak for the inventor of the robot vacuum.
This follows a tumultuous year for the robotics company, which lost its CEO and founder Colin Angle, saw the planned purchase by Amazon fall apart under regulatory scrutiny, and laid off over 50 percent of its workforce.
In its quarterly financial report published March 12, the company, which saw its revenue in the U.S. drop by 47 percent in the fourth quarter, said it had “initiated a formal strategic review to evaluate a broad range of alternatives, including, but not limited to, exploring a potential sale or strategic transaction and refinancing our debt.”
If its new line of products is not a success, which the report notes is entirely possible due to “consumer demand, competition, macroeconomics conditions and tariff policies,” and no other recourse is found to pay off its debt, iRobot says the company may be unable to continue beyond 12 months.
