There are some household names that you just expect to float along at the top of their game forever, or at least long enough until you’re old and senile and can’t tell up from a Coney Island hot dog anymore.
Uber, Netflix, Kleenex, Coca-Cola, Dumpster, Velcro. All of these have achieved a near-mythic melding of brand recognition with the products they helped make mainstream. Roomba did that with robot vacuums in the US, and yet here we are.
iRobot, maker of Roomba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, December 14, 2025. It’ll be acquired by a contract manufacturer, which says that sales and customer support will continue uninterrupted, but who had that on their bingo card for December 2025?
What’s happening?
Roomba maker iRobot wouldn’t be the first brand to reach household status in terms of brand recognition and then fumble the ball in the past 10 years. Peloton, maker of those ridiculously advanced exercise machines, rode a Covid pandemic sales high right off the edge of the profitability cliff.
The Roomba was taking on challenges from Shark, eufy, and Roborock, among other robotic vacuum brands, but the firm seemed to be on solid footing until recently.
Now iRobot will be acquired by Picea, which refers collectively to Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co., Ltd, and Santrum Hong Kong Co., Limited. The move will also bring iRobot under Picea’s private ownership, according to a public statement iRobot released to investors on Sunday.
Picea claims to have manufactured more than 20 million robot vacuums under several brand names, including its own.
The public statement says, “During the Chapter 11 process, iRobot will continue operating in the ordinary course with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships, or ongoing product support.” Still, I hone in on the words “during the Chapter 11 process.”
What happens after the process concludes? With contracts for so many brands, plus its own, will Picea need the iRobot or Roomba brand name for long?
As tempted as I was to declare this “sucky news for Roomba owners,” it seems from iRobot’s statement that Picea will continue to support them, so I suppose it’s business as usual for Roomba owners for the foreseeable future.
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