Nortek Security & Control buys Numera for mPERS

CARLSBAD, Calif.—Nortek Security & Control has purchased Numera Inc. for a reported $12 million.

Numera, based in Seattle with reported net sales of not more than $3 million in 2014, now becomes Nortek's flagship brand in the health and wellness space, Duane Paulson, SVP of product and market development for Nortek Security & Control told Security Systems News.

Numera's name and branding will remain the same, he said, and will fall under the Nortek umbrella, which includes 2Gig and Go!Control.

Nortek has been in the PERS business for some time, Paulson said, but “one trend we clearly saw was the movement to mobile PERS.”

“Elderly people are more robust today—my mother has no second thoughts about getting on a plane to visit her grandchildren—they're not homebound by any stretch,” Paulson said.

“Our customers were asking us for this solution. We bring the strength of our company with our size and our financial [standing]; they bring their expertise,” he said.

All Nortek's subsidiaries work together. Linear, 2GIG and Go!Control are Nortek's cornerstone brands, each targeting key markets. Now, Numera will target the health and wellness market.

Numera creates mPERS products and cloud-based software platforms that enable providers and healthcare-related companies to create safety- and health-monitoring services for its customers. Numera Libras integrates safety and health-monitoring capabilities to one wearable mobile device, offering hands-free communication, automated fall detection, location services and two-way voice communication and is designed to operate anywhere, Nortek said.

Numera has relationships with 20 of the top 24 national call centers, Tim Smokoff, Numera CEO, told SSN. It works with several hundred dealers and has shipped “north of 50,000 Libras units to individual customers,” he said.

Numera decided to sell because it needed the capital to expand its solutions, Smokoff said. “We see a much broader opportunity to extend beyond the traditional PERS markets, we're looking to expand globally,” he said.

“Acquiring this business is an important technology initiative for our security and control solutions segment,” Nortek president and CEO Michael J. Clarke said in a prepared statement. “Combining Numera's mobile PERS technologies with Nortek's traditional PERS and on-premises security and home automation offerings will position us at the forefront of today's aging-in-place technology trends.”

“It also provides us with a point of entry and the opportunity to lead in an evolving, fast-growing market, as well as the potential to realize top-line synergies by cross selling between Nortek's existing home security and PERS dealer networks and Numera's impressive client base,” he said.

“The markets for premises and personal security are converging, and our dealers are looking to suppliers to address this convergence,” Michael O'Neal, president of Nortek Security & Control, said in the statement.

Nortek Security & Control, based here, is a subsidiary of Nortek Inc. It is a provider of smart connected products and solutions to distributors, retailers, service providers and manufacturers.