top | item 46329957

(no title)

caesil | 2 months ago

Why not let Amazon take a stab at turning things around, then? It's better that they fail? I don't get it.

discuss

order

BeetleB|2 months ago

> Why not let Amazon take a stab at turning things around, then?

The point the article is making is that iRobot's bad decisions are the reason the company was failing. Blaming regulators for a poor acquisition outcome may be fair, but they were a very minor part of the outcome.

lkramer|2 months ago

According to the article, there is a defence invoking that exact sentiment if a merger is about to be blocked, bu iRobot decided not to invoke it (likely because it would have caused the price to be lower).

gizmondo|2 months ago

Why the price would be lower? Presumably the price was already agreed upon. Having a provision in the contract that the price is reduced if this argument is made to the antitrust authorities makes no sense.

I now realized that I recently saw some old tweets from this guy where he first opposed this merger and then celebrated the cancellation of the deal. So it seems he's just grasping at straws to look less like an idiot.

KerrAvon|2 months ago

couple things

- tbh, I think the Amazon deal doesn't matter much in the long run. The damage had been done earlier.

- why give Bezos any more free money? He's already rich enough.

adamsb6|2 months ago

They'll just hire the engineers they need out of the failed iRobot and not compensate the investors / founders for building something worth acqui-hiring.

The existing Roomba revenue stream probably doesn't matter. The expertise or maybe the brand (not a great brand imho) aligns with some company priority.

dcgudeman|2 months ago

Free money? I honestly don't understand comments like this. It's as if you aren't even trying to make sense. Amazon would have been bailing out Roomba so if anything this would have cost Bezos money.