Amazon’s latest acquisition adds the Roomba to its hardware portfolio

Amazon’s continued quest for world domination has taken another step forward with the company announcing the acquisition of another hardware brand. Amazon, owners of smart home brands such as Eero, Blink, and Ring is adding iRobot to that list. If you don’t know that name, you’re perhaps more familiar with the company’s iconic Roomba.

In announcing the deal, worth a cool $1.7 billion, Amazon said:

“We know that saving time matters, and chores take precious time that can be better spent doing something that customers love,” said Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices. “Over many years, the iRobot team has proven its ability to reinvent how people clean with products that are incredibly practical and inventive—from cleaning when and where customers want while avoiding common obstacles in the home, to automatically emptying the collection bin. Customers love iRobot products—and I’m excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable.”

The Roomba is, of course, not the only high-quality robot vacuum on the market, but it is the one that helped define it. Much as the iPad is to tablets, for many, a robot vacuum is a Roomba. It’s hard to think that these things have been around for 20 years at this point.

What does this mean for Roomba owners old and new? It’s unclear at this time. Initial information is scarce on how Amazon will be integrating iRobot into its product family. Others, like Ring, have remained brand separate from the Amazon mothership, so it’s quite likely that iRobot will fare the same. What it does do is further give Amazon a significant hold over the smart home space and another point of the company involving itself in your daily life. But the next Prime Day should have some good Roomba deals, at least.

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