This week, iRobot, the pioneering American robotics company behind the Roomba, filed for bankruptcy and announced that it would be taken over by its Chinese creditor. Colin Angle, a co-founder and a former longtime chief executive of the company, joins us to explain why the company lost its market dominance and what America should do to protect its newest crop of A.I. and robotics start-ups from the same fate. Then, we settle the score on our high, medium and low predictions from last year and lay down our new ones — including a spicy take on who will take over after Tim Cook at Apple. And finally, we wish all of our listeners a very happy holiday season with our annual tech-themed Christmas carol.

Guests

• Colin Angle, iRobot co-founder and former chief executive for over three decades.

Additional Reading

• Roomba Maker iRobot Files for Bankruptcy, With Chinese Supplier Taking Control

• iRobot Is in Trouble, but Roomba Is Already Dead

• Our 2025 Tech Predictions and Resolutions

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Credits

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. This episode was edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop and Diane Wong. Fact-checking by Will Peischel.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam and Dahlia Haddad.