Opportunity's knocking at your door

Over the past year or so the security industry has undergone some enormous changes. Every market has been hit, from the integrators and mass marketers to the manufacturers and distributors. But one market in particular, the monitoring industry, seems to have undergone one of the most drastic and unexpected changes. Over the last few months, average sized centrals King, Monital and IDC joined forces, becoming the largest central in the country. The new company has even outpaced Security Associates, which at one time had the honor of distinguishing itself as the largest wholesale central. Who could have predicted that would be the case? Just slightly more than a year ago, Security Associates was helping to orchestrate a deal that would secure its spot as the largest central. As many of us know, it would have joined Security Associates with Monital and King. But after that deal began to get shaky, no doubt a direct result of the SecurityVillage project not getting off the ground and SecurityVillage's inability to get an initial public offering, King and Monital pulled away. And, they have yet to look back. The duo did not wait long before launching into acquisition mode, gobbling up central stations such as Guardian Monitoring in Colorado, then IDC in Minnesota and now RTC Alarm Monitoring in California. The charge ahead will no doubt include more acquisitions in the future, but who will it be? The central station market is undergoing a consolidation frenzy just like the rest of our industry, with so many monitoring companies still to be had. These days, it seems like anything is possible. Heck, Honeywell bought Ademco and ADI, while Tyco is wrapping up its Sensormatic and DSC deals, just two of a few. And as we go to press, General Electric announced its plans to buy Interlogix. Some of you may be saying that our industry is nothing but a bunch of sell outs, not just in one sector of the market, but on all fronts. Is that really the case? Or is it that our industry is really growing, and companies like General Electric are beginning to recognize the importance of security related services and now see an opportunity to take part in a growing market. And companies like King-Monital-IDC see it as strength in numbers. That opportunity is not just for the central stations or manufacturing companies. It's also for you, the dealers, systems integrators and fire system installers because this activity that's happening in our industry means opportunity will be knocking at your door now and for years to come.