Archive: May 2006

MCLEAN, Va.--Northrop Grumman yesterday announced it teamed with fingerprint and card scanner company L-3 Communications Titan Group, and biometrics company Identix, among others, in its bid to win a $2 billion federal contract to secure the U.S. border. The Department of Homeland Security is scheduled to award the six-year Secure Border Initiative Net contract in September. The group that wins the contract will provide DHS's Customs and Border Protection directorate with a comprehensive border-protection...

QUINCY, Mass.--Security integrators and installers have until tomorrow, May 26, to submit a proposal telling the National Fire Protection Association what they think should be changed, omitted or added to NFPA 731. The code is of interest to many because it's new and it regulates the installation of security systems in commercial applications. Approved last August, the code broke new ground as the "first consensus-based security installation code," said Richard Bielen, NFPA chief systems and applications...

IRVINE, Calif.--Access control giant HID Global and card issuance manufacturer Fargo Electronics jointly announced on Tuesday that both corporate boards have agreed to a deal where HID will acquire Fargo for an all-cash consideration of $25.50 per share, a total of roughly $325 million. News of the deal pushed Fargo stock up $8.48 on Tuesday to finish at $24.71, though it is subject to regulatory review and Fargo stockholder approval and likely won't close until the third quarter of this year. According...

BALTIMORE--Late last week, Easter's Lock & Access Systems, founded here in 1953, announced plans to spin off two additional companies: Easter's Access and Security Systems, to be headed by Bryan Eiser and Tony Markowski and located in Hunt Valley, Md.; and Easter's Bank Equipment & Security, to be headed by Robert Shepherd and located in downtown Baltimore. Second generation owner Robert Easter will remain owner and president of all three companies, with Drew Jackson managing the original Lock &...

PENSACOLA, Fla.--As the demand for video monitoring increases, SentryNet, a wholesale monitoring operation with two central stations in Pensacola, Fla., and Greenville, Miss., is focusing on educating dealers about the technology and methods of generating RMR during dealer conferences this year. Although more than 100 dealers from eight states attended its spring dealer conference in Tunica, Miss., some dealers could not make it, so SentryNet decided that every dealer should have access to this information....

LYNN, Mass.--This week, Wayne Alarm Systems launched the Central Station Operator level II class for the full-service alarm company's dispatching staff. The company's eight supervisors with more than one year of experience at the central will take the course first, followed by its 32 operators. The course, available online through the Central Station Alarm Association web site, explores various modules that operators encounter daily, such as handling difficult customer situations. For example, the...

LOVELAND, Colo.--A4S chief executive officer Tom Marinelli announced in a conference call May 17 that the company's first quarter results "show we have substantial work ahead of us," but also show the traction the company has created in the mass-transit market with its ShiftWatch high-resolution mobile video surveillance systems. While A4S announced $1,124,000 in losses, roughly double the losses of 1Q 2005, it also announced a 189 percent revenue increase, from $74,000 in last year's first quarter...

OMAHA, Neb.--On Monday, May 15, President George W. Bush addressed the nation in a prime-time speech, outlining his goals for a national immigration policy. Contained within that speech was his point that "we need to hold employers to account for the workers they hire." However, he noted that employers have no way to verify that provided documents are legitimate. "Therefore," he said, "comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility. A key...

CHARLESTON, W.Va.--A slight increase in the square footage that commercial buildings are allowed to have before they must have sprinklers installed is the one change that West Virginia made when it recently adopted the 2003 versions of the National Fire Protection Association Uniform Fire Code (NFPA 1) and NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code. "We are definitely advocates for sprinkler systems," said State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis. The increase in square footage is minimal, he said, roughly 2,000 square...

BELTSVILLE, Md.--Alarm Services Group president Joe Nuccio on May 17 sent a letter to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Integrated Alarm Services Group asking the holding company to reconsider its decision not to combine with ASG. According the letter, ASG presented a proposal to the Albany-based holding company, which owns monitoring giant Criticom, two months ago that ASG said "maximizes value and limits risk for IASG's shareholders." It said the proposal "contemplated a negotiated...