Central Station Monitoring acquires Alarm Central

ESTACADA, Ore.—Central Station Monitoring (CSM), a full-service intrusion and fire alarm central station based here, recently acquired Alarm Central based in Beaverton, nearly doubling the number of accounts being monitored at its central station.

“It is exciting to almost double in size with this deal, and the additional revenues will give us the opportunity of expanding overall at some point,” Robbin Cleveland, general manager, Central Station Monitoring (CSM), told Security Systems News. “We have considered for quite some time of having a redundant central station, so now we truly have enough accounts to make that a viable realistic possibility and is something that we will be looking into for the future.”

Cleveland mentioned that several of the alarm dealers that were monitored by Alarm Central also have monitored accounts with CSM. “So many of the dealers we already knew and the ones that we didn't know we are building relationships with, which is also exciting,” she said.

Barry Epstein of Vertex Capital, who was the sole advisor to Alarm Central, said the deal makes sense on many levels. “They were the right partner because of the geographic overlay, and it will strengthen their position in the regional market,” Epstein told SSN. “Alarm Central has been around for more than 30 years and was run as a high-margin business, so from a gross-margin perspective, it is a very profitable business.”

Cleveland said that while they are open to further expansion, the company is not searching for other companies to acquire. “This is the first time we've ever made an acquisition of this nature, so it happened at the right time and the right location,” she explained, noting that the deal comes at a time of overall growth for the company.

“We are excited about our own growth and have added numerous positions,” she said. “This acquisition alone has increased our revenues tremendously, so we hope to continue growing for 2020 and beyond.”