Elizabeth Warren’s iRobot Gift to China

Antitrust regulators kill the iRobot-Amazon tie, and job losses ensue

WSJ editorial. Excerpt:

"Sen. Warren and Ms. Khan have won a pyrrhic victory. iRobot said Monday it is cutting about 31% of its workforce and research and development spending by “offshoring of non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions.” iRobot said it will also pause “all work related to non-floorcare innovations.”

It’s hard to see who benefits from the deal’s collapse besides Beijing, which aims to dominate robotics and mass-produce humanoid robots by 2025. The iRobot rivals progressives are worried about are Chinese firms.

As Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky noted in a statement, “mergers and acquisitions like this help companies like iRobot better compete in the global marketplace, particularly against companies, and from countries, that aren’t subject to the same regulatory requirements in fast-moving technology segments like robotics.”

Regulator opposition to the deal could also chill U.S. investment and innovation more broadly by sending a signal to venture investors that bigger companies won’t be allowed to acquire startups. Acquisitions are one way venture firms earn a return on their early investments, which they can then plow into other startups."