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Shares of iRobot Corporation (Nasdaq: IRBT), maker of the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner, are crashing today after the company announced that it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As of this writing, IRBT shares are down more than 78%and the news is only expected to get worse for common shareholders. Consumers, on the other hand, may be wondering if their Roombas will stop working. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? On Sunday, iRobot Corporation said it has filed for bankruptcy. The Massachusetts-based company is seeking Chapter 11 protection in the District of Delaware. As part of the process, iRobot has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA) with the Chinese company that manufactures its Roomba vacuum cleaners and other products, Picea Robotics. iRobot was founded in 1990 and was one of the most prominent American companies to popularize household robotics among consumers. Its Roomba vacuum cleaner took households by storm when the product was first released in 2002. But in the decades since, iRobot has faced heavy competition from other robotic vacuum companies, many of which have released cheaper, superior products in recent years. Still, iRobot enjoyed strong brand recognition and had a significant foothold in marketshare among robotic vacuums in both America and Japan. Starting in 2022, Amazon attempted to acquire the company, but that deal was ultimately abandoned due to regulatory concerns. Since then, iRobot has faced mounting debt, increased competition, higher operational costs, and the negative financial impact of President Trumps tariffs, notes Reuters. By this month, those burdens became too much, and the company decided to file for bankruptcy. What happens to iRobot now? If the Delaware court approves the bankruptcy plans, iRobots ownership will transfer to Picea Robotics, the companys primary manufacturer, which is also now its largest debt owner. In a press release, iRobot says it plans to continue operating throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, and once the proceedings are completed, iRobot is expected to continue operating under its new owners leadership. However, once the bankruptcy proceedings are complete, iRobot will be owned as a private company by Picea, which has significant implications for iRobots stock. How does the bankruptcy impact iRobots stock? iRobots stock will be significantly impacted by the bankruptcy. Upon completion of Chapter 11, iRobot will cease to trade as a public company. That means its shares will be delisted from the Nasdaq and will no longer be available for public trading. Given this news, its little surprise that IRBT shares have fallen off a cliff since the bankruptcy plans were announced. As of the time of this writing, iRBT shares are trading down more than 77% in premarket trading. Right now, IRBT shares are at 97 cents. On Friday, they closed at $4.32 per share. But as if todays cliff-edge price drop wasnt bad enough for iRobot investors, the company issued a dire warning to shareholders alongside its bankruptcy announcement. If the court approves the bankruptcy plans, iRobot expects that holders of iRobot common stock will experience a total loss and not receive recovery on their investment. In other words, if the bankruptcy goes ahead, retail investors can expect their IRBT shares to become worthless. In February 2021, IRBT’s shares traded as high as $137 per share. But since then, they have steadily declined, culminating in today’s sub-$1 price. Will Roombas stop working? Robotic vacuum cleaners are Internet of Things devices that generally require cloud infrastructure and an online platform to continue operating. Given that iRobot has announced it is filing for bankruptcy, many Roomba owners are understandably worried that their expensive vacuum cleaners might suddenly become bricked and stop working. But for now, those fears seem to be unfoundedat least according to iRobot. In a statement announcing its bankruptcy plans, iRobot said there will be no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships, or ongoing product support.
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E-Commerce
Public trust in the media and in data has been undercut by information overload, relentless social media cycles, and targeted influence campaigns. Whether driven by politics, social movements, or commercial interests, the credibility of what we see and hear is under threat. By thinking through the ways that we’ve lost our trust, we might find more ways to reverse the trend and bring people back together. Last month, Gallup released the latest results of a survey on trust in the media that began in 1972. It showed that current confidence in the mass media is at a new historic low. A majority trusting public in 1972 has now flipped to being a majority distrustful public in 2025. As with most data sets, the subtleties are more complicated. During the first Trump administration, trust rebounded significantlyand then backslid to its lowest point ever after the pandemic. Looking at the data from a partisan lens, overall trust fell across all three groups, with Republicans being the least trusting. But the shock is the growth of the “no trust at all” category: those least trusting Democrats barely changed, but for Republicans, it surged. Social Media Has Worked Us Over Completely The way people around the world access news and information are largely the samethrough the internet. Its growth has been so extreme in our lifetime, one can hardly blame us for acting a bit weird. In 1990, only 25 million people used the internet globallyabout 0.6% of the world. By 2025, 5.6 billion people use social media every day. That’s 64% of the world, a roughly 20,000% increase and we now spend about six and a half hours online every day. This explosive growth over the past 35 years has brought with it a variety of technological and social innovations and challenges. How we interact with information keeps changing, and with it, our language and culture also adapt. It reminds me of this quote by media theorist Marshall McLuhan: “All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences. They leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered.” As our connection to the internet grew, it also pushed us apart. Our attention became focused on digital realities and away from our friends and families. This has led to a loneliness epidemic. Studies show that aspects of chronic loneliness impact half of all US adults. And there’s a direct correlation between our lack of trust in the media and the growth of the internet. What was first a feature has become a bugcreating a feedback loop where fear of missing out leads to a reinforcement of what has been missing from many people’s lives. Putting People First in Data Communication Too many data professionals focus more on the data rather than the people reading it. We need an approach to communicating data that fosters genuine understanding and human connectionwhich in turn builds trust. This is as true in business communications as it is in marketing and media. By putting people first in how we understand data and how we communicate it, we address both crises at once. Our mission to restore data credibility should also focus on creating more human connection. This mindset shift towards data communication comes at a historically appropriate time. Looking backwards; the “big data” trend created vast data storehouses built by data engineers. Data scientists were needed to make sense of the data, and in doing so created AI tools to put data to work in a more proactive way. But over the past 15 years, this also helped create a data credibility issue. Now we need a new create a new generation of data communicators to pick up where data science left off and work to find a new way to make data meaningful to more people. How We Can Make It Happen It is a matter of design. To echo the central concepts of design thinking, we have to change our focus from the technology to the humans that need it. Unlike UX design, people do not use a dashboard or a data visualization, they read them. This small change belays a much bigger impact. Data communication is a two-step approach: First, we need to understand what the data means to the people who need it. Then, we should use every tool availablewords, images, diagrams, and storyto design the conversation around their needs and meet them where they are. This shift from data visualization to data communication needs a more balanced approach to how we design for data, and we need an extended skill set to equip the next generation of data communicators to do so. In this way, data is a bridge to connect people to discuss the context of the data. Why this is important to data professionals While the societal forces that created this loneliness epidemic and the distrust of information are nearly impossible to combat, we must try! It happens with each of us. Societal changes begin with the individual, and our work as data communicators means that we can design the relationships around us. It’s a personal approach to creating a more empathetic societya mission that anyone can join, regardless of background and skillset. As data communicators, our work has a special impact. Every chart, every dashboard, and every story can become a bridge to bring people together and rebuild the credibility of shared truth that joins us. By focusing on the communication of the data, we create bridges to connect people and reinforce systems of trust. By empowering a new generation of data communicators, we can make an impact across a range of professionsin business and industry, media and journalism, communications, and fine artto build more trust and create more conversations.
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E-Commerce
For the first time in eight years, pay TV is rising. According to the latest Cord-Cutting Monitor report from analyst firm MoffettNathanson, the number of subscriptions to linear video packages actually rose during the third quarter of 2025. The estimates, which include subscriptions to virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV, show that the pay-TV industry had 303,000 subscriber additions in the third quarter, marking the first quarterly gain since 2017. However, the research notes that the increase was “reasonably small and seasonal given that it happened during the quarter when the NFL season began, meaning it could potentially see subscribers drop out again at the beginning of Q1 next year. While much of the sequential growth came from the vMPVD segment, traditional video subscriptions via cable TV were down. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Gains led by YouTube TV and Charter The research overall found that the vMVPD category has been led by YouTube TV, which added an estimated 750,000 subscribers in the third quarter. MoffettNatanson emphasizes that its estimate is a conservative one and could even be an undercount. According to the firm, the bigger takeaway is that Charter Communications has seen significant improvements in pay TV subscriptions, especially after it secured a partnership with the Walt Disney Company two years ago. The deal gave the House of Mouse streaming rights to Charters video subscribers at no extra cost. It came after similar agreements with Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and NBCUniversal. These deals also allowed for Charter to market its video offerings again, promoting it as free live TV, with a discount on bundled streaming services like the Disney+ and Hulu bundle, ESPN Unlimited, HBO Max Basic with Ads and more, to reach young viewers. The research also suggests that since Charter renewed its commitment to video, the company has been able to cut its quarterly subscriber losses by two-thirds. Charter is also likely to bring its new video packaging strategy as well as its agreements to Cox Communications when the two finally close their merger next year. Though Charters improvements stood out the most, MoffettNatansons monitor also found that Comcast has seen some improvements for the last eight quarters where decline has been the slowest, meaning that cord-cutting is happening at a slower rate. Meanwhile, satellite TV providers like DirecTV and EchoStar have also seen some minor improvements, the report found. MoffettNatanson points out that while traditional distributors are still declining, vMVPDs are continuing to grow at an annual rate of 4.6%. Over the past 15 years, the shift in cord-cutting has been dramatic. As cited in a report by S&P Global last month, households that subscribe to traditional cable TV peaked in 2012 at 101 million, but the figure is now less than half that. The rise of live-TV streaming bundles with services like Slingwhich launched in 2015have traditionally not been enough to offset that decline.
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E-Commerce
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