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LaserShield acquires partner NextAlarm.com

LaserShield acquires partner NextAlarm.com

LAS CRUCES, N.M.--LaserShield, developer of a plug-and-go instant security system, in April completed the acquisition of NextAlarm.com, an alarm monitoring and technology development company based in Ojai, Calif. Details of the acquisition were not disclosed. The two companies have been working together since January of 2007. "LaserShield engaged NextAlarm in early 2007 to provide a broadband, VoIP-compatible interface for the LaserShield security products," said Bryan Field-Elliot, the former chief technology officer for NextAlarm.com, and now the head of software and broadband technology for Lasershield. "Acquisition was not always part of the discussion," he said. "We started talking in earnest around the December time frame and since both businesses are fairly mature and complicated, it took a while to get everything right, but now we're over that." The purchase involved the acquisition of "assets in technology, software, and a tremendous advanced backend host site that manages a suite of features," said Anthony Dohrmann, chief executive officer of LaserShield. In addition, the company also took on NextAlarm.com's employees, management personnel, customer accounts and two office locations in Santa Barbara and Ojai, Calif. NextAlarm.com, as a wholly owned subsidiary of LaserShield, will maintain operations and brand visibility, said Dohrmann, with particular investment in the VoIPAlarm brand, the reseller and dealer division of NextAlarm. "The lion's share of the [NextAlarm] business is based around the intellectual property and the VoIPAlarm.com solution," said Dohrmann. "The two things that NextAlarm gave us is the ability to own the technology that allows our product to communicate over the Internet to transmit alarms, but also the opportunity to provide transport technology to help customers, and monitoring stations and dealers who service those customers, to be able to provide a solution." LaserShield will begin a major national advertising campaign in May to promote VoIPAlarm and its broadband solutions, said Dohrmann. Looking toward the future, Dohrmann said the company is pursuing two-way satellite communication of alarm panels. "All LaserShield systems, from this point forward, will all have satellite capabilities," he said. The NextAlarm.com division will develop the technology to allow alarms to transmit a signal over two-way satellite, he said.

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