While the Federal Reserve is in the midst of nuking the U.S. economy and stock market and as inflation runs rampant, destroying quality of life for middle income and lower income households, Senator Elizabeth Warren has turned her focus away from berating Jerome Powell to...vacuum cleaners.
Having apparently solved all of the nation's other financial woes already, Warren has now directed her attention to a relatively small pending acquisition by Amazon, of Roomba vacuum cleaner company, iRobot.
Warren and a group of lawmakers has publicly asked the FTC this week to reject Amazon's plans to buy the vacuum maker for $1.7 billion, according to Reuters. The FTC was already in the midst of an antitrust review of the deal, as of earlier this month.
The letter to the FTC reads: "Given Amazon’s record of infringing on consumers’ privacy, and their ongoing history of anticompetitive mergers to increase their monopoly power, the FTC should use its authority to oppose the Amazon – iRobot transaction."
"Rather than compete in a fair marketplace on its own merits, Amazon is following a familiar anticompetitive playbook: leveraging its massive market share and access to capital to buy or suppress popular products," it continues.
The Senator later told Axios: "I have serious concerns about the Amazon-iRobot deal — dominant companies like Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing. The FTC should oppose this proposed merger to protect competition, lower consumer prices, and rein in Amazon’s well-documented anticompetitive activities."
Yeah, because Amazon is primarily a vacuum cleaner company...
You can read Warren's full letter to the FTC here.
