Roomba maker iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday and said the robotic vacuum cleaner would sell itself to a Chinese contract manufacturer. Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co., which makes Roombas for Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, will buy the company, according to a news release. iRobot said it doesn’t expect any disruptions to its app, customer service or other functions. Founded in 1990 by MIT roboticists, iRobot initially designed robots for space exploration, according to the company. iRobot debuted the Roomba in 2002, billing it as the first robotic vacuum for household floors. As sales grew, the company went public in 2005, and its stock price once topped $125.Shares of iRobot fell $3.12, or 72%, to $1.20 in pre-market trading on Monday.Amazon agreed to buy iRobot for $1.7 billion in 2022, but the deal fell apart last year after pushback from European Union regulators. At that time, Amazon said it would pay iRobot an agreed-upon termination fee of $94 million, while the vacuum maker planned to restructure to help stabilize the business. In September, iRobot warned that it was struggling with declining sales as consumers cut spending, warning that it was at risk of either shutting down some operations or filing for bankruptcy. Under the deal with Picea, iRobot said it will continue to operate “in the ordinary course with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships or ongoing product support.”
