iRobot Selling its Defense and Security Business to Focus on Consumers
IRobot's SUGV. Photo: IRobot.
The Roomba and the PackBot are going their separate ways.
IRobot has signed an agreement with Arlington Capital Partners to sell its Defense & Security business for $45 million, which will split off the company’s defense work to allow it to focus on its commercial business.
“After a thorough and deliberate process, we’ve concluded the sale of the business to Arlington Capital Partners will maximize shareholder value by allowing us to focus on our much larger home segment,” says iRobot Chairman and CEO Colin Angle.
Arlington Capital Partners, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, will operate its new venture as an independent company, which becomes the largest independent provider of ground-based robots to the U.S. Department of Defense. The company will continue with its four classes of robots: the FirstLook, SUGV, PackBot and Kobra, more than 6,000 of which have been delivered worldwide to date.
Sean Bielat will be CEO of the new company, which has not yet been named, and Tom Frost, currently the senior vice president and general manager of iRobot’s Defense & Security, will be named president. The company will remain in Bedford, Massachusetts.
“The Defense & Security business has an established reputation for cutting-edge technology, industry-leading reliability and battle-tested functionality,” says Peter Manos, a managing partner at Arlington Capital. “We look forward to further consolidating the company’s preeminent position in robotics through organic investment and acquisitions.”
Angle says iRobot had a successful holiday season with its new Roomba 980, and that sales across the Roomba family had been greater than anticipated for 2015.
