Acquisition pushes NorthStar to more than $2m in RMR

OREM, Utah—NorthStar Alarm has acquired the 8,000 accounts and physical assets of residential alarm security company Vision Security, both based here. It also has acquired an interest in Vision's solar business, which will be run as a separate entity.

The purchase will expand NorthStar's security customer base into Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. NorthStar will now service more than 43,000 customers in 24 states, for a total RMR of more than $2 million, according to NorthStar CEO Jason Christensen.

Door-knocking company NorthStar, an authorized dealer of Honeywell security products, will take on 40 Vision Security employees in sales and operations, Christensen told Security Systems News, bringing its total staffing to more than 100.

Christensen said NorthStar has been eyeing Vision Security for more than a year for a number of different reasons.

“There were a lot of complementary strengths and outstanding individuals that were part of that organization,” he said.

The one-and-a-half-year-old Vision Solar division is an area that offers unique opportunities to NorthStar.

“We haven't been involved with that before,” Christensen said.

Solar will operate independently from the security side of the business with its own sales reps.

NorthStar hit a company milestone in 2013, its best year in its history, with RMR of more than $1 million. Christensen said then that NorthStar planned to reach $5 million in RMR over the next five years.

“We've taken steps toward that goal. We see that as a feasible goal for the near future,” Christensen said. “NorthStar has had 35 percent plus growth for past two years. Our customer base has increased dramatically aside from this acquisition.”

NorthStar's equity investors, The Beekman Group and Goldman Sachs, participated in this deal.

Meanwhile, NorthStar has broken ground on its new, 30,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Orem, scheduled for completion in 2016.