New firm captures central

MALIBU, Calif. - Established to pursue acquisitions in the homeland security and security information systems fields, Vinoble announced last month plans to acquire wholesale monitoring firm 21st Sentry Monitoring Systems. The deal follows a flurry of purchasing activity by the recently refocused public holding company. As a result of the deal, Vinoble will operate the St. James, N.Y-based company as a wholly owned subsidiary and retain the 21st Sentry name. Vinoble plans to diversify the central station’s service offerings to expand the scope of potential customers. These new services will include mobile alarm sensors and CCTV monitoring, as well as GPS and RFID asset tracking. The central station now handles more than 19,000 accounts throughout the United States and works with approximately 200 dealers. “I think what’s new about it is the packaging of it,” said Thomas Welch, chief operating officer at Vinoble, regarding how the central station’s monitoring services will be affected by the purchase by the security-focused security company. “Customers will now have full access of everything they need.” Vinoble’s corporate focus shifted to security products and service in the second half of 2004, from a provider of networking technologies. Since that time, the company changed its name from Ohana Enterprises to reflect its new identity and landed a financing commitment of $500,000 from GarcyCo Capital Corp. in exchange for 200 million shares of common stock. Since January, Vinoble acquired security services firm Millennium Protective Services and announced plans to relocate corporate headquarters from here to Millennium’s Baldwin, N.Y., offices. The company has also purchased retail security business MSI, information security consulting firm Secure Enterprise Solutions and information security training provider WISE Learning Solutions. Welch said the company paid for the acquisitions using a combination of cash and stock. These deals have been in the works for more than six months before they were completed. Additionally, he said, as a result of industry networking, all the parties were familiar with each other prior to negotiations. In the future, Vinoble is expected to complete two deals a year, or about one every six months. No plans are in the works to take Vinoble private, he said, as the company’s public status simplifies acquisitions using company stock. Joseph Lively, who also joined Vinoble this year, leads the company as president and chief executive officer. Previously, he worked as an attorney, corporate executive and New York City police officer.