Archive: April 2010
Garda has a different definition than I do of "Strong Year-End Results"
April 30, 2010Martha Entwistle
Hey, 2009 was a tough year. Plenty of people took a loss in 2009 and it's nothing to be ashamed of (though, I suppose, nothing to celebrate either). Here's hoping, certainly, that everything really does turn around in 2010 the way it's looking like it might.
However, I'm having a little bit of difficulty reconciling Garda's announcement that it has delivered "strong year-end results" with the fact that it lost $35 million last year. Perhaps they have a different definition of "strong year-end results"...
Administration of industry's 'great resource' transferred to CSAA
April 30, 2010Daniel Gelinas
Just got my most recent issue of CSAA's Signals. Looks like they'll be taking over administration of Alarm Call Center Education, Networking, and Training (ACCENT) listserver. ACCENT was launched by CSAA and SIA to facilitate the networking of their members. ACCENT has been managed and administered by SIA since it began over 10 years ago.
From the entry in Signals:
'We would like to thank SIA and its CEO, Richard Chace, for making this great resource available to our industry so many years ago,'...
Max Jewell, Fike CEO, dies
April 29, 2010SSN Staff
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo.—Max Jewell, CEO and president of Fike Corporation, died on April 28, 2010. Fike is an industrial and commercial safety solutions provider, which entered the general fire alarm market two years ago, and made a foray video smoke detection with the acquisition of axonX last year.
Fike customers, employees, suppliers, and business partners worldwide learned of Jewell's death today in a letter from Fike Chairman Lester L. Fike, and Logan J. Wilson, Fike Sr. VP Legal Affairs.
“Max...
No more freebies on false alarms in St. Johns, Fla.
April 29, 2010SSN Staff
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—An April 29 story from the Ponte Vedra Recorder reports that effective immediately, residents with home alarms in St. Johns County will have to register with the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office and pay a fee for false alarms.
At the April 20 commission meeting, commissioners approved an ordinance allowing the Sheriff's Office to impose fees for excessive false alarms.
The initial registration fee is $25. The first instance of a false alarm nets a notification letter from...
Chipmaker Techwell bought - does it mean anything?
April 29, 2010Martha Entwistle
The component makers are one step removed from you, the installer, but it can be interesting to see what they're up to, as they can drive the manufacturers in new directions and they have an effect on price.
A couple days back I had an interesting call with OmniVision, which makes chips for IP cameras and is touting much better low-light performance, and you'll see a story on that coming down the pipe.
Today, I'm taking note that Techwell has been purchased by Intersil, a company I had never heard...
New APX central now in full operation
April 28, 2010SSN Staff
PROVO, Utah—Summer model alarm company APX, one of the fastest-growing and largest alarm companies in the country, on April 26 announced its new central station—located at the company's new corporate headquarters here—was now in full operation. The new monitoring center is the company's second and is hot redundant with its first monitoring center, which APX bought from Protection One subsidiary CMS in November of 2009.
According to APX VP of operations Lindsay Grauling, “We...
Kastle embraces analytics for video monitoring
April 28, 2010SSN Staff
WASHINGTON—Kastle Security, long a provider of managed-access solutions to the commercial real estate vertical, has recently embraced video monitoring facilitated by video analytics, as evidenced by a recently announced roll out with Vornado/Charles E. Smith, a $12 billion real estate investment trust that is the largest owner of office properties in both New York City and here in Washington.
The video monitoring solution, integrated with Kastle's proprietary central station software, which...
I'm not the only one who thinks the lawyers are scummy...
April 28, 2010Martha Entwistle
It's nice to have somebody get your back every once in a while. Looking through the PeHUB wire yesterday, I came across this from the excellent Dean Primack:
As an aside: When doing a bit of Google research on Protection One, I saw a handful of press releases by law firms “investigating potential claims on behalf of shareholders of Protection One.” In other words, law firms hoping to get shareholders to sue the company for selling at too low a price (a.k.a. breach of fiduciary duty).
These...
Will Stanley/ADT buy Protection One from GTCR in 2015?
April 28, 2010SSN Staff
LAWRENCE, Kan.—The announcement on Tuesday that GTCR and Tim Whall were returning to the security industry as the new owner and CEO of Protection One has insiders discussing how their strategy with Pro One will differ from past deals.
Will they use the same investment playbook? Will Whall be aggressive with acquisitions like he has been in the past? Are they looking to “pretty up” Pro One and sell to ADT or Stanley in five years?
It's only been two days since GTCR announced it would...
APX, Five Diamond Certification, and policing dealer practices
April 28, 2010Daniel Gelinas
So after receiving a few CSAA-directed comments of a bilious nature after I posted my APX gets Five Diamond certified blog post, I decided to consolidate said comments and rebuttals from the CSAA here for all y'all.
Of course the news I blogged Monday was that APX, a summer-model company based in Provo, Utah, and one of the largest alarm companies in the country, had gone through the vetting process and had applied for and received Five Diamond certification from the CSAA.
The blog post ran with...