WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, Competitiveness Coalition Chairman Ronna McDaniel authored a new piece for the Boston Herald holding accountable former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and her ideological comrade, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for their role in the fall of iRobot, an American innovator, under Chinese control while warning of the negative effects of anti-business and anti-growth regulatory policies.
“In early 2022, Khan, along with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), whose home state housed iRobot’s headquarters and hundreds of its employees, opposed Amazon’s attempt to acquire iRobot. Unfortunately, her efforts, conducted in concert with her European counterparts, succeeded, as the companies announced that they would abandon their merger due to overzealous government regulators, writes McDaniel, a former four-term Republican National Committee (RNC) chair.
“Khan’s FTC actually praised the merger’s abandonment, saying ‘we are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction.’ Warren went so far as to release a public letter to Khan calling on the FTC to block approval of the deal. At the time, 350 of iRobot’s Massachusetts-based employees lost their jobs. The situation only deteriorated from there.”
McDaniel continued: “In order for American companies to outpace China (rather than fall into Chinese ownership through bankruptcy), our regulators must work with them, not against them, to ensure that a robust and free market remains the economic bedrock that props up our businesses, our innovators, and our workers alike. The consequences of punitive, ideologically-based overregulation, though evident before, are crystal clear now.”
“Let’s learn from Lina Khan’s assault on iRobot, not replicate it,” concludes McDaniel.
Read the full piece in the Boston Herald here.
For more information on the Competitiveness Coalition’s work, please visit competitivenesscoalition.com. Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.
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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.