AvantGuard sister company acquires PERS manufacturer

OGDEN, Utah—Freeus, the new sister company to AvantGuard Monitoring Services, on Feb. 27 acquired the PERS side of Securus.

AvantGuard created Freeus in January to acquire Securus, Josh Garner, AvantGuard CEO, told Security Systems News.

The Edmonds Group represented Securus in this sale. Henry Edmonds, company founder and president, declined to release terms of deal.

Securus originally approached AvantGuard about acquiring the PERS side of Securus, Garner said. Though, “we didn't think it made sense for us to acquire it directly, but rather set up an independent company to run and operate it.”

Avantguard supports a dozen PERS providers, Garner said, but he declined to comment on the ratio of Securus to others.

Ninety-five percent of Securus' PERS business was with AvantGuard, Garner estimated.

“We think that having that relationships between the two companies will make for a very strong, symbiotic relationship that will allow us to give better service to dealers and subscribers,” he said.

Freeus will compete for dealers like any other PERS provider with AvantGuard, Garner said. “We don't want to restrict our dealers… And if our dealers choose another product, we will support that and integrate [it] as tight as that manufacturer will allow us to.”

“If [dealers] choose Freeus—great. If they choose something else—great. At the end of the day, we just want to provide great service to that dealer and their customers,” Garner said.

“Securus has developed an outstanding product and service,” Edmonds said. The Edmonds Group suggested this acquisition to move Securus' PERS offering forward, Edmonds said.

“I think all parties felt like the combination would result in more rapid growth and the ability to bring the message and opportunity to a broader range of people,” Edmonds said.

Five of the employees from Securus pool of about 20 will move to Freeus, including employees focused on engineering, development, and account management, according to Garner. The rest of Securus' staff will remain to continue Securus' GPS tracking business.

Garner said that currently the plan for Freeus is to grow organically, with no other acquisitions on the horizon.

Both Freeus and AvantGuard are operated under the parent company Golden Aide.