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Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former FTC chair Lina Khan spent Monday getting blamed on social media for iRobot's bankruptcy and subsequent fire sale to a Chinese manufacturer.

Catch up quick: Amazon in 2022 agreed to buy the Roomba maker for $1.7 billion, in what at the time would have been its fourth-largest acquisition. 

The deal later was repriced to $1.4 billion, and iRobot would eventually take out a $200 million term loan from Carlyle as it awaited deal closure.

European Union antitrust regulators then came out in opposition and were cited as the reason Amazon and iRobot abandoned their agreement in early 2024.

Amazon paid a breakup fee to iRobot, but it was for less than half of the new indebtedness.

Zoom in: You'll notice that Warren and Khan aren't part of any of that.

Yes, Warren opposed the merger. Just like she opposes most mergers, particularly those involving Big Tech.

And it's also true that the FTC was doing an in-depth investigation of the merger, which most expected to result in an antitrust lawsuit. When the deal was abandoned, the FTC applauded.

The bottom line: Warren and Khan wanted to stop Amazon's deal for iRobot, but they never got the chance.

Europe broke iRobot before the FTC could

Lina Khan and Sen. Warren would have tried to block the deal but didn't get the chance.

Animated illustration of a roomba moving toward a wall that looks like the European Union flag and hitting it three times.

<p>Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former FTC chair Lina Khan spent Monday getting blamed on social media for iRobot&#x27;s bankruptcy and subsequent fire sale to a Chinese manufacturer.</p><ul><li>It&#x27;s misplaced. Sort of.</li></ul>

Europe broke iRobot before the FTC could

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