iRobot Cuts 105 More Jobs as Workforce Shrinks by Half
iRobot lays off an additional 105 employees as part of an ongoing operational restructuring following the collapse of its Amazon acquisition. The company now operates with half the global workforce it started the year with.
iRobot lays off 105 additional employees, reducing its staff by roughly 16% as part of a new operational restructuring plan. This latest round of job cuts follows a previous elimination of 350 positions earlier in the year. The vacuum maker states that these reductions fundamentally change how it partners to develop and build its robots.
The ongoing workforce reductions stem directly from the failed $1.7 billion acquisition by Amazon. The two companies mutually terminated the agreement after determining there was no viable path to securing regulatory approval in the European Union. Although iRobot collects a $94 million termination fee from Amazon, the lost deal forces the company to restructure its entire business model.
CEO Gary Cohen explains during the Q3 2024 earnings call that this new operating model delivers a significant increase in new product introductions with less than half the internal resources and about one-third of the cost. As a result of these sweeping changes, iRobot reduces its global workforce by approximately 50% since the start of 2024.