Dedicated Micros buys Baxall from receivership

LAS VEGAS--Dedicated Micros announced here on the ASIS International show floor that its parent company, AD Group, has purchased Baxall Holdings Limited, a camera manufacturer based in Stockport, UK, which had been put into receivership under the administration of KPMG Corporate Restructuring on Sept. 3. According to Dedicated Micros, the acquisition includes the company's intellectual property, current inventory and the production equipment. "The message," said Mark Provinsal, vice president of strategic marketing at Dedicated Micros, "is that we're going to become a solutions company ... We knew we had to get beyond DVRs. We made our own cameras, but now we've purchased Baxall, which is well known in Europe and has a lot of OEM relationships in the United States, making everything from low-end to high-end cameras, analog to IP." Baxall's best-known products, the ICE, ICE +, ICE-Dome and ICE IP, will continue on the market. Dedicated Micros plans to integrate its NetVu connected technology into the ICE IP series in the near future. Founded in 1976, Baxall is better known for its analog cameras, but launched its Destiny IP cameras at the 2002 IFSEC show. "We're still trying to figure out how to best use the new research and development assets," said Provinsal. The R&D team will now be based at AD Group's Daresbury, UK, headquarters, and manufacturing will be brought into Dedicated Micros' Malta plant. "The Baxall brand isn't going to disappear," Provinsal said, "but there's still the question of how to bring it under the Dedicated Micros brand." AD and Dedicated Micros also announced there will be full warranty support for the camera lines that fall under the agreement, for products shipped within the last six months of Baxall trading.