BCE enters agreement to acquire AlarmForce

MONTREAL and TORONTO—BCE Inc., a large Canadian communications and media company known as Bell, on Nov. 6 announced an agreement to acquire AlarmForce and the company's more than 100,000 customers. The deal is valued at about $166 million, BCE noted in its announcement.

The deal, which is “subject to customary closing conditions, including, without limitation, court, AlarmForce shareholder and stock exchange (TSX and NYSE) approvals,” is expected to close in January 2018.

“Acquiring AlarmForce positions Bell for growth in the connected home in the Québec and Ontario markets, while enhancing our existing security and automation operations in all four Atlantic Canadian provinces and in Manitoba,” Marc Choma, Bell's director of communications, told Security Systems News in an email interview.

“Combining Bell's significant network connectivity, distribution, installation and customer service capabilities with AlarmForce's technology and customer base immediately accelerates our competitiveness in the connected home market while delivering significant operational savings,” Choma continued. Bell services residential and commercial security customers through two companies, Bell Alliant NextGen Home Security and AAA Security, which is a Bell MTS company.

BCE provides a comprehensive suite of broadband wireless, TV, Internet and business communication services from Bell Canada, Bell Aliant and Bell MTS. Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with assets in television, radio, out of home and digital media.

AlarmForce offers a variety of services including security alarm monitoring, personal emergency response monitoring, video surveillance and related services to residential and commercial subscribers throughout Canada.

National Bank Financial and Imperial Capital have been engaged by AlarmForce as their financial advisors. Bennett Jones LLP and Wildeboer Dellelce LLP are acting as legal advisors to AlarmForce and the Special Committee, respectively.