By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot faces a full-scale EU antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said, weeks after the U.S. online retail giant won UK approval for the deal.
Amazon announced the takeover in August last year to expand its portfolio of smart devices which include Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security devices and wall mounted smart displays.
The European Commission is scheduled to launch a four-month investigation following the end of its preliminary review of the deal on July 6, the people said.
Amazon is unlikely to offer remedies during this initial phase, one of the people said. However it has a final shot in the next few days at convincing the EU competition watchdog that the deal is pro-competitive although the odds are high.
The Commission and Amazon declined to comment.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee;Editing by Alison Williams, Kirsten Donovan)
