On the Editor’s Desk

NICE Systems has been very aggressive in the security space lately, most notably with its acquisition of Orsus, but also with more subtle personnel moves, like the hiring of “Dr. Bob” Banerjee, long associated with Bosch’s activities in the IP video space (hmmm, looks like I should take down his blog from my blog roll, yes?).

This is probably a good thing for security. NICE is a healthy company, as evidenced by the financials they’ve released today, and healthy companies with cash on hand can invest in product development, integrator support with marketing and sales materials, and bolt-on acquisitions that can help focus the market as a whole.

And even in a tough 2009, NICE is healthy. Some numbers that jump out:

Net Income: Fourth quarter 2009 net income increased to $12.7 million, from $7.8 million in the third quarter 2008, and compared to $18.7 million in the fourth quarter 2008. Net income for the year 2009 increased to $42.8 million, up from $39.1 million in 2008.

That’s some nice streamlining, when you can take in $40 million less in revenue (I’m going from the SEC filings, which you can download here) and come away with $3 million more in net profit.

Also coming from the SEC filings, NICE has increased its cash on hand from $144 million to $214 million, so don’t be surprised if there’s another acquisition of some kind in the works, and very possibly in security/video:

Zeevi Bregman , President and Chief Executive Officer, NICE Systems commented: “Furthermore, our key growth engines – analytics based business applications, solutions for financial crime prevention and advanced security solutions – all recorded accelerated growth in 2009.“

Does NICE pick up some analytics technology in 2010? Financial focus and analytics - maybe 3VR is a fit? Just some idle speculation on a Wednesday morning.