Amazon just took a really big step to buying the market for household robots, as the company has just reached a new deal to acquire iRobot, the creator of Roomba robot vacuums. This purchase is worth $1.7 billion in cash And the previous CEO Colin Angle will remain in their position. Amazon or iRobot did not say when they expect this deal to close, but that will depend on the approval of both IRobot’s shareholders and regulators.

After announcing this deal, Amazon did not outline its exact plans although Senior VP Dave Limp did focus on IRobot’s ability to reinvent how people clean, saying he looked forward to inventing products with the company. This successful merger might just end the 32 years of independence for the company, which was founded in 1990 by MIT researchers focused on military robots although it did mark a very big turning point in 2002 when it first unveiled the Roomba, basically a robovac and it became popular quickly and racked up a lot of sales, nearly a million units by 2004.

iRobot has faced a raw few months as it generally faired well in recent years, the company did post a loss in its latest quarter, seeing both its revenue and cash reserves shrink. This deal with Amazon might help out the company as it has a lot of fierce competition these days, including Anker’s Eufy brand, Neato, Roborock, Shark, and Wyze. Amazon’s Resources might help if the company fends off rivals with much stronger marketing and better resources and technology.