Amazon, a major American IT company, has announced that it will acquire the US company IRobot, which handles robot vacuum cleaners, for approximately 230 billion yen in Japanese yen, and plans to strengthen its home appliance business.
Amazon announced on the 5th that it will acquire the US company iRobot, which is responsible for the Roomba, the pioneer of robot vacuum cleaners.
The purchase price is approximately 1.7 billion dollars, including debt, or approximately 230 billion yen.
Amazon has been focusing on the home appliance business last year, selling home robots equipped with AI (artificial intelligence) that take care of personal belongings.
Regarding this acquisition, Amazon commented, "Saving time is important, housework is taking away valuable time. We will invent things to make people's lives easier and more enjoyable."
In the United States, Tesla, an electric vehicle manufacturer, is also developing a robot that can handle shopping in the future by utilizing the technology cultivated in automatic driving of cars such as AI and sensors.