Why iRobot Stock Short-Circuited Today

Shares of (NASDAQ: IRBT) had fallen by 8.4% as of 11:45 a.m. ET in Thursday trading, after Reuters reported that the European Union has launched a "full-scale" antitrust investigation of Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) plan to acquire the maker of Roomba vacuum-cleaning robots.  

Investors were presumably caught off guard by the announcement, which came just a week after the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority gave its assent to the deal. Now, with the European Commission taking the opposite course, iRobot (and Amazon) investors have months of new uncertainty to look forward to.

Reuters notes that the E.U.'s antitrust regulator will conduct a "preliminary review" of the deal through July 6, which will be followed by a "four-month investigation." So in total, we're probably looking at five more months, minimum, before Amazon might be allowed to proceed with its purchase of iRobot.

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Source Fool.com