Last week, the Federal Trade Commission sent both iRobot Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. a so-called "second request," initiating what experts called an "onerous" process for the companies to comply with regulators.
While such requests tend to be uncommon, the iRobot deal's request did not catch many by surprise.
Notably, the e-commerce giant did not mention a proposed timeline when the all-cash deal with the Bedford Roomba maker iRobot was announced in August, as if anticipating the possibility of a lengthy period of scrutiny. And just a few weeks before, Amazon received another second request for its planned $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical.
Yet many questions remain: Will Amazon be able to close the deal? Is it possible the regulatory compliance process ends up in court? And if the deal were actually allowed to proceed, would that decision come with strings attached for Amazon?
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