News written by Petteri Pyyny (December, 2025)

The long-struggling American robot vacuum manufacturer iRobot has been sold.

iRobot is best known for its products -- the company is the maker of Roomba robot vacuums -- and it has played a key role in shaping the modern robot vacuum market, having operated in the field for some 35 years.

At its peak during the pandemic in 2021, iRobot's market capitalization stood well above $3 billion. However, intensifying competition and poor strategic decisions pushed the company into serious trouble.

In 2022, iRobot had already reached a fully negotiated acquisition agreement, under which Amazon was set to acquire the company.

The European Union ultimately blocked the deal, citing concerns that Amazon could distort the robot vacuum market by favoring iRobot products it owned over those of competing manufacturers.

After the deal collapsed, iRobot was unable to turn its finances around, and the company's debt continued to balloon year after year.

In spring 2025, it was announced that the legendary smartwatch manufacturer Pebble is making a comeback.

Now Pebble is expanding its product lineup into the smart ring market -- a segment currently dominated by the Finnish company Oura.

But Pebble's approach to smart rings is entirely different from all of its competitors.

First of all, the Pebble Index 01 ring does not measure any vital signs of its wearer: no heart rate, no activity, nothing.

Its only function is a button that the user presses. When the button is pressed, the ring records audio for as long as the button is held down, up to a maximum of five minutes.

The recorded audio is transferred wirelessly to the phone paired with the ring, where it is converted into text. According to Pebble, the app can transcribe audio into text in 99 languages. If the user chooses, the recording can also trigger an on-device AI that executes spoken commands, such as setting a calendar reminder.

However, the most surprising feature of the ring is related to its charging. Or rather, to the fact that Pebble's smart ring cannot be charged at all, in any way.

Once the ring's battery runs out, it becomes recyclable waste that the manufacturer hopes users will send back to Pebble for proper recycling. The battery lasts for approximately 12–14 hours of recordings.

Media outlets reported a couple of days ago that media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) was up for sale and that several purchase offers had been submitted. Now, the winner of that bidding process has been confirmed.

Netflix will acquire Warner Bros for $82.7 billion.

The current WBD television channels were excluded from the deal and will be separated into their own Discovery Global company. Discovery Global will become an independent, publicly listed company. Only after the split will the remaining parts of the entity transfer to Netflix ownership. The estimated timeline for completion is set for the third quarter of 2026.

As part of the acquisition, Netflix will gain the legendary Warner Bros. film studio, the rights to Warner Bros films, DC Entertainment, and of course, HBO. In HBO's case, the acquisition includes the HBO Max streaming service, all HBO content, and the HBO premium television channel.

This means Netflix will also become a company that operates a traditional premium TV channel (HBO) -- unless Netflix later decides to sell or outsource the TV channel.

Netflix states in its announcement that beloved and iconic series and films such as Harry Potter and Stranger Things will be available under the same roof once the acquisition is finalized.