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iRobot makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner.
Courtesy iRobot
The British competition regulator approved
Amazon
U.K.’s ‘s $1.7 billion purchase of
iRobot
,
the maker of smart vacuum cleaners.
Shares of iRobot (ticker: IRBT) skyrocketed 22% in premarket trading to trade at $51.40 on Friday. Shares of Amazon.com (AMZN) were largely flat.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it had cleared the acquisition after finding the “deal would not lead to competition concerns in the U.K” or put rivals at a disadvantage.
The iRobot deal, announced in early August, was an all-cash transaction for roughly $1.7 billion, including debt. iRobot designs and builds robot vacuum cleaners sold under the Roomba brand.
Write to Karishma Vanjani at karishma.vanjani@dowjones.com
