this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Troubled robot vacuum-cleaner maker iRobot, abandoned by Amazon after regulators effectively doomed the web giant's takeover offer, has warned investors it may not survive the next 12 months.

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[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 179 points 2 days ago (11 children)

Hmm so this entire trick of setting up companies just to be bought by mega corps appears to be not a viable strategy if anti trust law is enforced?

Edit: apparently this company was set up before sell to mega corp craze got kicked off. I don't think changes the thesis but this case study doesn't support it with the strength I suggested

Hmm as if last 30 years of corpo behavior has been essentially to maintain mega corp dominance via captured regulators and legislators

We got the capitalism alright but where is the free market at, daddy?

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago (4 children)

setting up companies just to be bought by mega corps

iRobot was originally founded all the way back in 1990 and have sold quite a lot of Roomba vacuums, advancing innovation in home automation along the way. I don’t think anyone can ever say that they set up this company for a quick flip corpo pump and dump.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It was originally at up to leech government funding for “weapons research”. I guess I’m old because nobody here seems to remember that.

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[–] Glitchvid@lemmy.world 85 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Don't worry, the new strategy is to string a company along with talks of a buyout, then when their cash runs out and they declare bankruptcy, to buy all the assets on fire sale.

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I'm glad I waited to replace my old Eufy one. I definitely will not be replacing it with Roomba now.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 103 points 2 days ago (13 children)

(I know I didn't contribute shit & just complain but) ... isn't it a bit weird how after all this time there arent any good open sauce diy robot kits?

Like, materials, sensors, brushes, filters, batteries, etc are all cheaply available, a basic board could literally be just cut plywood with the rest is the things mounted on top (who even needs a cover?). And ofc one could mount various weapons mod on it.

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 87 points 1 day ago (5 children)

There is https://valetudo.cloud/ for a lot of existing models, it's about the closest thing we have.

[–] onoki@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"for a lot of models" is a bit of an exaggeration. Especially as Xiaomi/Dreame try to actively restrict Valetudo use.

But yes, Valetudo is a great project. I'd just wish there was a manufacturer who would openly endorse it.

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[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 13 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I love DIY tech projects and yet I would never go through the effort to make a robot vacuum because vacuuming is already the easiest chore in the house. You kinda just stand there and go swoop swoop swoop a few times. Takes like 3 minutes to do an entire room. As opposed to listening to the robot vacuum rumble around for an hour and do a half ass job, if it even finishes without getting spooked by a shadow thinking it’s a 100ft cliff

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago

I really don't like vacuuming, so to me it doesn't matter how long it takes; I can set it up and then leave the house

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 17 points 1 day ago

Popular Science had an "open source" robot lawnmower plans in the...80s? I have it somewhere. Old enough that it used deep cycle lead-acid batteries and spinning round dremel blades. No laser to cut the grass, although it did use LEDs for sensors for grass height.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 52 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm a bit of a diy and repair nerd for damned near anything. I have a near 20 year old roomba 530 model that still works great. Back then and for a good many years roombas were hands down the best bang for your buck. I haven't recommended them for the past decade. They fell behind in ability and build quality. Let alone any of the privacy concerns stuff. Damned shame.

[–] freely1333@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago

Patiently awaiting Congress to ban any Chinese robot vacuums out of national security risk

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Mozilla gave them an OK privacy rating. Not great, but not terrible.

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[–] kane@femboys.biz 65 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Their products require their app, would this effectively turn their devices useless when the servers die?

I know it supports a single button to start cleaning, but I wonder if that will work properly without being able to call home.

Might be time for people to look for alternatives.

[–] TheGreatSnacku@lemm.ee 47 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It technically still works without the app but it loses features that increase the efficiency of the map, tells it where not to clean, scheduled cleaning, etc.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So basically anything that makes it more useful than just doing it yourself.

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 55 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Another company squandering their patents and market advantage. Reminds me of TiVo.

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[–] bouncing_blob@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 days ago

my first thought was aren't they a part of the Military Industrial Complex, how could they possibly go bankrupt? It turns out they sold off that part of their business in 2016 to private equity. Oops.

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