Posted on 02/01/2024 5:21:22 AM PST by george76
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who urged federal regulators to kill the Amazon-iRobot merger, finally got her wish this week when Amazon abandoned the deal, forcing the layoffs of 350 workers at the Massachusetts-based robotics company.
The Massachusetts senator has been noticeably silent about the collapse of the iRobot acquisition and the loss of the jobs even though she’s railed against Amazon for years.
“I have serious concerns about the Amazon-iRobot deal – dominant companies like Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing,” Warren said in a 2022 statement. “The FTC should oppose this proposed merger to protect competition, lower consumer prices, and rein in Amazon’s well-documented anti-competitive activities.’
The Federal Trade Commission – which is now led by a Warren acolyte – did raise concerns about the deal and worked with the European Union, which eventually blocked the merger.
iRobot, which makes the popular Roomba vacuum cleaner, did not say where the job layoffs would be but the company is based in Massachusetts.
As a result of the collapse, iRobot head Robin Angle — a star in Massachusetts high-tech circles – announced he was stepping down. Angle said in a statement that he and the iRobot board decided “that iRobot will be better served by a new leader with turnaround experience.”
Amazon had to pay iRobot a $94 million termination fee for ending the deal to add the robotics company to its portfolio, which would have allowed them to sell iRobot products directly on its website.
Amazon is also a major employer in Massachusetts, with a robotics innovation facility in Westboro that opened in 2021.
Warren’s office did not respond to a Herald request for comment about the layoffs and the blow to iRobot, which is expected now to restructure, possibly triggering more layoffs.
The far-left Massachusetts Democrat has for years had Amazon and other big high-tech companies in her sights for their anti-competitive, anti-consumer behavior. Along with a phalanx of other liberal lawmakers, she sent a letter to the FTC urging them to kill the $1.65 billion iRobot acquisition in 2022.
But the loss of jobs? Not so much as a word out of Warren about that.
She puts policy and partisan politics over people.
Warren lives a millionaire lifestyle in her Cambridge house and has no idea how ordinary people struggle to get by. She does softball interviews with CNN and other friendly outlets and rarely exposes herself to hostile questions.
Did Lizzy’s Roomba spread her fecal matter around the room?
https://rare.us/rare-humor/roomba-dog-poop/
350 jobs.
350 families now worried about paying the mortgage, the electric and gas bills, groceries.... Finding a new job can sometimes take months. That’s Liz Warren, looking out for the little guy.
Hmmm...... I wanted a Romba but my wife said no.
Now that I know they come from the communist commonwealth of Massachusetts, I will look elsewhere.
Oh and I must add, one of the funniest scenes on television is where a Romba scared the crap out of Tim McGee on NCIS
“I have serious concerns about the Amazon-iRobot deal – dominant companies like Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing,”
For once I agree with her. Although I wonder what her real motives are here.
My thought is Amazon wanted the intellectual property from the house floor plans the robots would provide. I agree with Warren on this one, and can’t believe I agree with her on anything!
Hoes in Politics. Big mistake.
I have a few former co-worker friends that left the company I was at in Massachusetts for many years to go work for iRobot about 15 years ago. They seem to love working there.
Here’s a good article outlining this Marxist hag:
Elizabeth Warren’s Surreptitious Socialism
The nationalization of corporate boards is anti-capitalist and unconstitutional.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Excerpt:
Lest anyone forget, the great 19th-century corporate reform was the passage of general incorporation laws that allowed any group of individuals to form a corporation, with its attendant benefit of limited liability, so long as they met certain minimum conditions relating to their capital contributions, their ability to sue and be sued, and their board structures. The new legal regime ushered in sustained economic expansion by knocking out the political favoritism that had previously given some businesses corporate charters that gave them a huge edge over direct competitors denied similar authorization. It would be unsurpassed folly to re-open the doors to these abuses today.
Warren’s proposal is unconstitutional to boot. The doctrine of unconstitutional conditions makes it clear that the government cannot attach whatever conditions it wants in the exercise of its monopoly power over corporate charters, any more than it can do so with licenses and permits. The state can tell drivers that they must take driving tests to use public highways, but it cannot insist that drivers surrender their rights to participate in political debate or against unreasonable searches and seizures to use public highways. The regulation of corporations is similarly constrained, so that the conditions attached to corporate charters must be reasonably related to the safe and prudent operation of their corporate businesses—and not the stringent conditions that Warren champions under her progressive banner. Her egalitarian grandstanding gravely threatens the liberty and prosperity of our nation.
https://www.hoover.org/research/elizabeth-warrens-surreptitious-socialism
-PJ
I’d bet a dollar to a donut that every worker who lost their job voted for her.....................
IRobot has been losing money for years, and will likely liquidate. Amazon will then buy its IP for a small fraction of the merger price, hire its employees. Who got screwed? Shareholders.
Having just a few mega-corporations like Amazon, who own everything will be just like having Socialism.
Wonder how Lizzie says “Let them eat cake!” in her Native language to those 350 unemployed people?
If the corporation is unable to operate at profit and fails, how is it the stockholders are screwed?
I walked down the vacuum aisle at Sam’s and noticed there were lots of robot vacuums being offered. Apparently iRobot’s day is finally here. That’s why Amazon is trying to buy it on the cheap
Just more evidence that government is not “Of The People, By The People & For The People”.
It is now “Of The DNC, By The DNC & For The Party”.
Those not agreeing either get paid off or get screwed.
I’m sure if a PRC/CCP online company like TEMU bought IRobit Lie-a-watha would heap praise on the deal as a triumph for consumers. (as long as she got a slice of the Big-Guy’s 10%)
This story right here would make for a great script outline for an Ayn Rand movie. Attempts to put Atlas Shrugged into movie form, though earnest, fall flat as the book is simple too big and rich in themes. But this story captures an important theme in the book concisely and doably.
She will give them all jobs making Indian dolls, peace pipes, and miniature TeePees to sell at her tribal gift shop...
“Having just a few mega-corporations like Amazon, who own everything will be just like having Socialism.”
____________________________________________________
You lack basic understanding of what socialism is.
I actually agree with Elizabeth Warren about this. Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, etc should be prevented from acquiring anything. In fact, they should be broken up as illegal monopolies.
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