Wednesday, October 22, 2008

IRobot’s Angle to replace Greiner as board chairman

By Mass High Tech Staff

Helen Greiner has resigned from her position as chairman of the board at iRobot Corp. in order to pursue other interests, the company announced today. The board voted unanimously to have CEO Colin Angle replace Greiner as chairman while continuing to serve in his current role as well.

Greiner will continue serving the board as a non-employee director, in addition to working with the Robotics Technology Consortium and Massachusetts Robotics Cluster, she said.

Both Greiner and Angle were chosen as Mass High Tech All Stars in 2007.

iRobot also released its third-quarter earnings today, reporting 45 percent growth on the top line over the year-earlier quarter. The company reported a profit of $3.9 million on revenue of $92.4 million compared with a net loss of $11.7 million on revenue of $63.8 million in third-quarter 2007.

Angle said it was iRobot’s 17th consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth.

The company’s total home robot revenue rose 56 percent year over year, and international home-robot sales more than doubled last year’s third quarter, the company reported. Meanwhile, the company’s government and industrial division delivered a record 319 PackBots in the third quarter, driving a 31 percent sales rise over last year’s third quarter.

In the third quarter, iRobot received $40 million in orders for robots and spare parts under a $286 million contract with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) and announced its acquisition of Nekton Research LLC, an unmanned underwater robot and technology company based in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.