Something else that has happened since the initial talks of this merger is that Roomba machines have fallen far behind the competition who are both more driven and taking bigger risks offering better products for the same price or less.
You have a whole bunch of Chinese companies fighting it out on the market (as the founding fathers would have wanted for US!), offering better and better products, leaving Roombas in the dust. While iRobot sleeps on their laurels, barely innovates and at best is only capable of solving their flaccid inability to compete by... being sold to a monopolist which can push it via their store. That's what they wanted.
If US would still have this kind of healthy market of multiple (smaller) companies competing on product, not IP lawsuits and patents, the government wouldn't have to enact foreign sanctions to defend the economy.
I feel there is a lot that can be done in US but the electronics industry is slowly eroding.
Or: The "electronics industry" (essentially contract manufacturing) is much too low margin to make economic sense in a highly developed country like the US. Have you seen the wages in the hyper competitive electronics industry in China? They are awful. Design and marketing is where most of the value can be captured. Look at Philips N.V. They are essentially strictly design in advanced countries, and manuf. in developing countries. They are doing well.
Includes robot vacuums: https://www.teslasmart.com/smart-vacuum-cleaners
Why assume that original comment was talking about the car manufacturer when there are robot vacuums from a much older company branded like that?
I wouldn’t touch an iRobot (or any camera vacuum) after their camera scandal: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-i...
The new Xiaomi versions now even sport extendible arms to reach corners fully.
If they work, you’d not feel the pressure to upgrade.