Amazon's abandoned acquisition leaves iRobot in Carlyle debt straightjacket

FILE PHOTO: Prompts on how to use Amazon's Alexa personal assistant are seen as a wifi-equipped Roomba begins cleaning a room in an Amazon ?experience center? in Vallejo, California, U.S., May 8, 2018. Picture taken on May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

(Reuters) - The collapse of iRobot's $1.4 billion sale to Amazon will test the cash-strapped robot vacuum cleaner maker's ability to repay a $200 million loan it took from private equity firm Carlyle Group last year.

The Roomba vacuum maker said on Monday it would lay off 31% of its roughly 1,130 employees and cut costs to save $150 million or more, as the deal's demise in the hands of European antitrust regulators left it confronting plunging revenue and soaring losses.