NMC mega-merger creates global Netwatch Group

LAKE FOREST, Calif.—National Monitoring Center, a third party monitoring company with monitoring centers based here and in Irving, Texas, announced this week the launch of a new global monitoring company, Netwatch Group, following the merger of four monitoring companies with the backing of global private equity firm The Riverside Company.

The Netwatch Group, which includes monitoring companies NMC, Netwatch (Ireland), CalAtlantic (United States) and Onwatch Multifire (United Kingdom), will focus on leading the consolidation of the proactive visual monitoring industry while bringing the visual prevention capabilities of Netwatch to thousands of NMC end-users through its valued dealer partners in the U.S. under the NMC brand.

“Today we are creating a global leader in proactive monitoring services,” Netwatch Group CEO David Walsh said in the announcement. “There is increased demand for visual monitoring from enterprise customers, driven by the continuing evolution of technology and advances such as AI, Deep Learning, 5G and IoT (Internet of Things). The combined strengths of NMC, CalAtlantic, Onwatch Multifire and Netwatch—all leaders in their respective geographies—means that we can immediately deliver industry leading proprietary technologies in proactive visual monitoring to hundreds of thousands of clients who rely on us to protect lives, assets and business operations.”

Continued Walsh: “Netwatch Group will specialize in providing risk management, business continuity, security and life safety services to clients across the world. �We have ambitious growth plans to expand our global footprint which we will achieve through organic growth and further acquisitions.”

Woodie Andrawos, who will continue to lead the NMC team as the managing director and president of NMC out of Lake Forest, Calif., told Security Systems News in an email interview that he expects to see strong growth both in the U.S. and globally.

“From the immediacy standpoint, in the U.S. market we expect organic growth through the existing dealer channel to by offering proactive video monitoring services to their existing subscribers,” he told SSN. “We've already seen traction on this front and as we scale our education with our dealers, we expect to see those opportunities continue to grow. Additionally, we believe our dealers will see opportunities open for new subscribers they may not have been able to penetrate prior.”

The first live educational event and webinar is scheduled for Thursday, May 10, at the Lake Forest headquarters.

As a result of this merger and the new proactive visual monitoring capabilities, Andrawos said the company expects to bring in new dealers, including ones that have in-house monitoring centers. “Since our technology is exclusive to our dealers, it will enable them to provide the next step in video monitoring, a proactive solution offering,” he explained.

Netwatch Group will be headquartered in Carlow, Ireland with UK headquarters in East Sussex. Its North American headquarters will be located in Lake Forest, Calif., with satellite offices in Boston, New Jersey, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago. The company will immediately have a network of six advanced Global Monitoring Centers, connected by the Netwatch proprietary CRATOS technology platform.

Long-term plans for the mega-company are “to continue to scale organically and through acquisitions globally, as well as continuing to expand our service capabilities by increasing our investments in our research and development,” said Andrawos. “Currently, we have over 30 in house engineers in Ireland as part of what we refer to as the Netwatch Visual Labs. We expect for our team to grow as well as the capabilities of our proprietary technology platform.”

Andrawos noted that the key to the merger was Samir Samhouri, former chairman and CEO of Xtralis, a leader in the early detection safety and security technologies. Samhouri has been appointed chairman of Netwatch Group and will be one of the company's investors.

Michael Schubert, CEO and Co-founder of NMC, will be retiring from the business after 38 years in the security industry.