Tyco acquires retail-focused analytics vendor IntelliVid

PEMBROKE, Bermuda--Tyco International in July announced the acquisition of the assets of IntelliVid, a developer of retail-focused intelligent video analysis solutions, to add to its American Dynamics portfolio of video security technologies. Since 2003, privately-held IntelliVid has provided retail customers with business intelligence applications that utilize video analytics for loss prevention, customer safety, compliance and merchandising. “We certainly view video analytics as a key enabling technology in the IP video space,” said Chuck Hutzler, vice president of R&D for American Dynamics solutions, and it’s a space Tyco has begun making major investments in, including the November 2007 acquisition of Trident Tek. He called the IntelliVid buy a “double win for us. This extends our capabilities going forward and gives us the immediate ability to further advance our move into the business intelligence areas.” The acquired assets include IntelliVid’s complete line of Video Investigator solutions, Point of Sale (POS) Accelerators, and Computer Aided Tracking software. The new solutions will leverage American Dynamics VideoEdge technologies, allowing recorded video to be used for real-time and forensic theft prevention and store intelligence solutions. The buy is part of a trend of legacy manufacturers purchasing analytics firms. Siemens purchased VistaScape in late 2006. Earlier this year, ICx bought PureTech Systems. IntelliVid has a unique understanding of the retail space, said Patrick Sobalvarro, president and CEO of IntelliVid. “In the traditional security space,” he said, by way of example, “many analytics offerings have loitering applications,” where loitering is seen as a negative thing to be avoided. “In a retail setting, lingering is a positive. You need to be able to understand and know a particular consumer is lingering at the end cap and evaluating the products. It’s an important piece of data for a retailer to have.”