Amazon has began discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the retail giant’s A$2.6 billion takeover of iRobot, makers of the groundbreaking Roomba vacuum.
The all-cash deal is expected to face antitrust scrutiny from regulators around the globe.
Amazon is expected to add Roomba to its arsenal of smart home products, but has also announced iRobot’s founder and CEO, Colin Angle, will remain on as CEO.
“Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot is public and undergoing regulatory review,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“Of course, Amazon will comply with any local obligations necessary, but otherwise we cannot comment any further.”
Digital Rights Watch, a not-for-profit advocacy group, feels that Amazon will use Roomba as a surveillance tool, with its ability to create and store two- and three-dimensional maps of private spaces.
“This acquisition isn’t about selling robot vacuums, this is so Amazon can gather even more information about our lives and our homes,” said James Clark, executive director of Digital Rights Watch.
“At its core, Amazon is a surveillance company,” he wrote in a report.
“Amazon protects its market power and profitability by using its scale to build detailed profiles on millions of people and uses that to predict market trends and manipulate user behaviour.
“The personal information about Australians and their homes shouldn’t be treated as an asset to be traded and acquired. This is sensitive and private information. There needs to be real limits on how it can be used, and especially on how it can be shared.”
The deal is also in the crosshairs of the US Federal Trade Commission, and likely to face an uphill battle.
The current FTC chair Lina Khan wrote an article, ‘Amazon’s antitrust paradox’, for the Yale Law Review in 2017, which argued strongly against Amazon’s monopolistic tendencies.