Archive: April 2015

Joe Albaugh is the chief security officer at Vivint, a job he has held for 10 months. He is responsible for the “convergence of security practices,” he says, including the operational security of products, cybersecurity and personal and physical security.Where do you live? I've been doing an extended commute. My home is in Western Maryland, an hour and a half northeast of D.C. We have a horse farm there, and we wanted to get through the winter before we sold the house and found a place...

Say your residential security company has made a huge dent in a particular neighborhood. You've got the area covered and all is good, for you and for homeowners. Then some shifty guy comes around that neighborhood, knocks on your customers' doors and professes to offer a better deal for their homes' security than you can provide. The guy is likely part of a door-to-door scam, and it's also likely more guys like him will be showing up over the summer months, according to the Better Business Bureau....

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Cloud video surveillance provider Smartvue announced this week that it secured $15 million in financing from Fortress Investment Group, a $67 billion firm. I spoke to Martin Renkis, Smartvue founder and CEO, this morning and asked him what Fortress, which typically works with much larger companies, saw in Smartvue. Fortress likes Smartvue's vision of being "a major cloud platform in the video surveillance services business," Renkis said. "[Fortress] saw what we saw, which is...

Bold Technologies, a central station software provider based here, has hired 14 people in the last eight months, company president Chuck Speck told me, more than doubling its standard rate of five or six new employees per year. “Most of [the employee growth] is spurred by bringing new customers on,” Speck said. Bold added staff to its new fulfillment department, which works on implementation with new customers, he said. The fulfillment department was started out of continual customer...

TOKYO—In a bid that industry analysts told Security Systems News is intended to get Canon to increase its $2.8 billion offer for Axis Communications, Elliott Management, a New York hedge fund, increased its stake in Axis to 10.91 percent and has not yet sold those shares to Canon. Canon now owns 84 percent of Axis shares. On April 24, Canon extended the offer period a second time, from the original April 15 to May 5. Canon said it would neither extend the offer period again nor raise its...

EATONTOWN, N.J.—Jim Hennessy, who sold his systems integration firm to MSA Security in 2008, has repurchased the company with the help of other members of the management team and MidCap Equity Partners.“It's a very amicable split. We have a great relationship with MSA Security. We will continue to recommend [their services] and they will continue to recommend us. We'll share some leads,” Jim Hennessy, president of MSA SI, told Security Systems News.Terms of the deal, which closed...

WILMINGTON, Del.—Regional security company B Safe, in acquisition mode, has increased its RMR some 15 percent to about $335,000 over the past year, and it's looking for 35 percent more growth in 2015, according to customer service manager Mary Cakir.Its most recent purchases of SMARTIS Security Systems in Dover and American Protection in southern New Jersey brought in 1,500 accounts, of which about 60 percent are residential, Cakir told Security Systems News.“We like to grow,” Cakir...

ARLINGTON, Mass.—American Alarm and Communications, an installing central station based here, says it is the first New England monitoring center to use the ASAP program to respond to an alarm signal.The Automated Secure Alarm Protocol enables central stations to compile information digitally—such as name, location, address and type of alarm—and send it to dispatch centers. It reduces verbal error and response time.“There is no way to get it wrong, from a spoken standpoint—nothing...

ARLINGTON, Va.—Eight in 10 homebuilders offer clients monitored security systems, according to a study that looked at the market for built-in home technology. The Consumer Electronics Association's 13th Annual State of Builder Technology Market Study found that in 2014 the options for home tech installed by builders either increased or remained consistent year over year, CEA said in a prepared statement. “Installed home technologies are increasingly playing a key role in new construction,”...

YARMOUTH, Maine—Take a look around at your co-workers and your customers. Who are the tech-savvy integrators and end users with the security smarts and drive to lead the industry of tomorrow? Security Systems News is seeking nominees for its “20 under 40” Class of 2015—talented young professionals who will move the security industry into the future. There will be separate classes for integrators and for end users, for a total of 40 winners. Each award recipient will...