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The U.K.\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed<\/a> that it\u2019s assessing Amazon\u2019s proposed acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot.<\/p>\n The case is still at its earliest possible stage, where the CMA is essentially soliciting comments from relevant stakeholders to establish whether there may be a \u201csubstantial lessening of competition\u201d in the U.K. as a result of Amazon buying iRobot.<\/p>\n The CMA hasn\u2019t provided any specific timescales or deadlines for when it will announce whether to proceed with an official investigation.<\/p>\n Founded some 30 years ago out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), iRobot is probably best known for its Roomba-branded autonomous vacuum cleaners, though it also offers tangential products capable of mopping floors<\/a>.<\/p>\n With Amazon\u2019s gradual foray into the smart home<\/a>, as well as its own dabblings in home robotics<\/a> including integrations with Roombas<\/a>, it wasn\u2019t necessarily a huge surprise that iRobot would be a tempting proposition for Amazon, which tabled a $1.7 billion for publicly-traded iRobot in August<\/a>.\u00a0 But against a backdrop<\/a> of growing regulatory scrutiny against Big Tech, it was little surprise that the megabucks iRobot deal would eventually draw the attentions of authorities around the globe.<\/p>\n Across the water in mainland Europe, EU regulators are reportedly preparing<\/a> to investigate Amazon\u2019s iRobot acquisition on privacy grounds, due to concerns over how Amazon might combine data from the two companies to gain a competitive advantage. In its domestic market, meanwhile, Amazon is already in the regulators\u2019 crosshairs<\/a> as part of a multi-faceted investigation covering acquisitions, competition, privacy and more. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently mulling<\/a> an official investigation into its iRobot deal, though notably the FTC did recently greenlight<\/a> Amazon\u2019s $3.9 billion<\/a> One Medical acquisition.<\/p>\n As for the U.K., it currently has a bunch of antitrust deals to contend with. Just yesterday, regulator Ofcom revealed that it was preparing to refer<\/a> the local cloud infrastructure market for an in-depth investigation, with Amazon\u2019s AWS and Microsoft specifically in-focus. Microsoft\u2019s bumper $68.7 billion bid for Activision is also in the CMA\u2019s line-of-sight<\/a>, as is Broadcom\u2019s planned $61 billion VMware acquisition<\/a>. And some 18 months ago, the CMA ordered Facebook parent Meta<\/a> to sell-off Giphy, which it had bought the previous year for $400 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n So while today\u2019s news doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that Amazon\u2019s iRobot deal is in peril, it\u2019s clear that the U.K. has an appetite<\/a> for interrogating Big Tech\u2019s M&A endeavors. And with EU and U.S. regulators also eyeing up a potential in-depth investigation, it would not be overly surprising if the U.K. did decide to launch an official inquiry.<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to Amazon for comment, and will update here when we hear back.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nSmart home<\/h2>\n