Iverify acquires Checkview

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Video monitoring company Iverify doubled the size of its business with the March 26 acquisition of Checkview, a provider of loss prevention and security services for national accounts.

The deal includes 170 new employees, bringing Iverify's employee count to almost 500. It adds a monitoring station in Minnesota. It also expands Iverify's reach into Canada, as Checkview has a Toronto office and employees throughout Canada.

The acquisition also brings Checkview new technology capabilities. While Iverify and Checkview both serve national retail customers, Checkview “has not previously been in the video monitoring market,” Iverify CEO Sean Forrest told Security Systems News.

“Checkview was much more traditional in its offerings. It offered CCTV, unmonitored video, intrusion and fire alarm, but no interactive video,” Forrest said.

However, Checkview's customers had started to ask for remote video monitoring services, Forrest said. Now they can offer their customers this service. “We think this is an ideal combination,” he said.

The deal comes just eight months after Iverify acquired TransAlarm.

The TransAlarm deal also included a monitoring center in Minnesota. Forrest said that the two monitoring centers will be combined in the future.

Nick Khalil will continue in the role of Checkview CEO. Khalil told SSN that he is especially excited about the interactive video monitoring technology that Checkview will be able to offer. “Any national integrator that's at our level has to have that technology,” he said. “It's a must for [many retail] sites. … Now it's our job to crosssell that technology into our existing accounts.”

“The plan is to, as quickly as possible, get sales people and product managers and everyone else to understand the technology inside and out,” he said.

Both Khalil and Forrest said that the integration of Checkview with Iverify and TransAlarm will be eased by the fact that the executives know each other well and have worked together in the past. Steve Champeau is the former longtime president of Checkview.

“We [all] know each other well and there are a lot of similarities in the way we do business,” Forrest said.

Iverify purchased Checkview from Platinum Equity, which is based in Los Angeles. Platinum purchased Checkview from its former parent company Checkpoint in 2013.

Driehaus Private Equity, the majority owner of Iverify was the financial sponsor of the acquisition. Financing was provided by The PrivateBank.