What happened
Shares of iRobot (IRBT 3.13%) were up 19% as of 10:56 a.m. ET on Friday after the company reached a deal to be acquired by Amazon (AMZN -1.14%). The Roomba vacuum maker agreed to an all-cash transaction worth $1.7 billion, or $61 per share.
Year to date, shares of iRobot are down 9.6%.
So what
The deal is extra sweet for iRobot shareholders who have seen their shares underperform the S&P 500 in the last decade. Over the last five years, the company's shares are down 42% compared to the S&P 500's return of 67%.
While iRobot has delivered strong growth in revenue over that time, the main problem weighing on the stock is a lack of profits to show for it.
In the company's second quarter, revenue fell 30% year over year to $255 million. Management blamed unanticipated order reductions, cancellations, and delays. Moreover, iRobot reported a net loss per share of $1.60 for the quarter.
Now what
As a part of Amazon, iRobot -- which already sells its products through the e-commerce site and has integrated them with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant -- will have access to much greater resources to invest in new technologies and products.
The news release didn't specify a timeline for the deal to be completed, but Colin Angle will remain CEO of iRobot upon the closing, according to the release.
The company's innovative robotic vacuums have given people tremendous value in time saved since the company's founding in 2002. With the stock trading very near the buyout offer of $61, there's only a small profit to be gained from holding until the deal is completed.
