Irobot business news

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mfortuna
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Irobot business news

Post by mfortuna »

This has been making the news a bit here in New England. A major investor is looking for changes.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/ ... ?ana=yahoo

http://www.investors.com/irbt-irobot-st ... &ven=yahoo
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vic7767
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Re: Irobot business news

Post by vic7767 »

Interesting Mike, wonder what's coming down the pike for the home robotics arena?
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Re: Irobot business news

Post by third_deg »

I hate to see Colin under attack like this as I respect him as both a friend and colleague.

That said, I left iRobot because I could not get proper resources for the 880 (there were many skeptics within the ranks that required battling). Meanwhile the telepresence robot had a 30 person team. Crazy.

As to what's next? It's good... Just not as good as mine haha.

Speaking of that, I'll be posting some carefully angled sneak peak vids of Third Degree very soon (angle chosen to show what it can do, but not how)
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Re: Irobot business news

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third_deg wrote:sneak peak vids of Third Degree very soon
Hurry :agree:
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mfortuna
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Re: Irobot business news

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Please keep this on-topic. We are eager to hear about the third degree but this topic is for Irobot business news.
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Re: Irobot business news

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Basically saying the activist investor has a good point (regarding telepresence and money allocation relative to R&D). They are mistaken on the military side though. At this point it is a very small investment and still nets size able contracts. There have already paired that team down enough.

They would do well to move on from telepresence however.
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Re: Irobot business news

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They sound a bit like companies which ought to break up into separate firms for different market segments, or spin off the consumer robot division into a separate company, maybe sold to someone else. A lot of such reorganization has been happening in capital markets, and is a standard feature of corporate business, sort of a monopoly game -- I'll add two robots to the hotel on Park Place. It does not sound like there is that much synergy between the two endeavors given how the technology is now widespread. All sorts of firms can make vacuum robots, and the computer industry can spill into it along with appliance makers. The economic constraints on the different products are different and so on. Roomba could become another Maytag.
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Post by mfortuna »

I worked for a company called Avid for many years. They were a pioneer in video editing using computers and also developed video servers and storage. Originally run by tech savvy executives, the board, influenced by a large investor installed management teams that had little tech knowledge but were paid much more than the original team. The result has been years of market share loss, layoffs and outsourcing, and poor employee moral. I can see the same thing happening to Irobot.

Remember the disaster when John Sculley took over Apple. Hey, he did great at Pepsi, why not at Apple.

A tech company needs tech people on top. If Colin Angle leaves, sells out, or is kicked out, Irobot will be lucky to survive.
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Post by glnc222 »

You can find a similar story in movies (on DVD) from the 1950's, as in "Executive Suite" from Cameron Hawley's novel, as well as his "Cash McCall" on film. And more in his other novels. Some dramas keep recurring, like the assassination of Julius Caesar. Those in business are not so often portrayed, considered too mundane. You'd be surprised.
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Press item:
Washington Post, "Why the maker of Roomba vacuums is getting out of the warbot business" Feb. 13, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... all-began/
it plans to sell its defense and security business to Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Chevy Chase, Md., which has deep ties to the government contracting world. The price was up to $45 million, based on sales targets. A new name for the defense unit will be announced when the deal closes in the next few months, a spokesman said.
A number of company break ups have been profitable for investors and are advocated by analysts and activist investors for shareholder value. Chapter on it in a book by CNBC's Jim Cramer. A conundrum, slow segments can be cash cows financing growth segments, but can also drag on the value of the growth segments. Some like to separate, some not.
Defense work allowed development of consumer application side lines, but when the consumer side gets large, there are opposing long term prospects and cycles in demand, as well as different investor communities and different management specialties, expertise in the different markets. Robotics may have been a specialty at one time, but now the applications of it take over.
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The new consumer iRobot corp, divested of the defense contractor business, has doubled its stock price in the 2017 Trump rally.

Personal contacts revealed one company commissioned a marketing study from research firms, and I suspect it was Samsung, as they quoted statistics on preferences motivating their new lower height VR7000 model forthcoming (and being large enough to engage in such planning). Also some very low prices offered on a new base model of the larger 9000 series suggests they had a problem selling that model which would not go under lots of furniture (some though, is too low for anything).
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iRobot stock popped 15 per cent more on unexpected strong Q1 2017 performance (in line with a global economic pickup since last year, not just optimism on future growth). Best Buy end of April is sold out of Roomba 960 and 980. At the same time Samsung dropped the price again on its new 7000 series introduced. Maybe they aren't getting the market share sought and need to get reviews from first adopters for promotion (yet the firm booms on memory chip sales -- robots a very small part, rounding error). There is always their reputation hit from last year's battery calamity, along with Ninja washing machines throwing lids.
[edit] iRobot also running a spring sale so its just a slow season for robots in general, and maybe a lot of things.
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Sept. 20, 2017 Vorwerk merged the remainder of Neato Robotics http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewto ... 20&t=20138
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Re: Irobot business news

Post by I_Like_to_tinker »

glnc222 wrote:Press item:
Washington Post, "Why the maker of Roomba vacuums is getting out of the warbot business" Feb. 13, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... all-began/
it plans to sell its defense and security business to Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Chevy Chase, Md., which has deep ties to the government contracting world. The price was up to $45 million, based on sales targets. A new name for the defense unit will be announced when the deal closes in the next few months, a spokesman said.
A number of company break ups have been profitable for investors and are advocated by analysts and activist investors for shareholder value. Chapter on it in a book by CNBC's Jim Cramer. A conundrum, slow segments can be cash cows financing growth segments, but can also drag on the value of the growth segments. Some like to separate, some not.
Defense work allowed development of consumer application side lines, but when the consumer side gets large, there are opposing long term prospects and cycles in demand, as well as different investor communities and different management specialties, expertise in the different markets. Robotics may have been a specialty at one time, but now the applications of it take over.
Jim Cramer is a clown.


iRobot is working on a robotic lawn mower according to the chief financial officer.
http://investor.irobot.com/news-release ... conference

She also mentions that they are trying to figure out other uses for their mapping data in a smart home.

Also in this presentation they have "mop, map, vacuum" with "mow (future)" and "monitor (future)"
http://investor.irobot.com/static-files ... cfb7d1bf82
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