World Wide Security acquires CCTV Security

GARDEN CITY, N.Y.—World Wide Security, a full service security company based here, announced July 30 that it has acquired CCTV Security, a systems integrator based in Long Island City, N.Y.

The deal, which closed in mid-July, brings 1,000 clients and 10 new employees. In business for 40 years, CCTV Security has a book of “blue chip clients [including] The Ritz, Hilton hotels, schools, consulates … and realty management companies,” Kenneth Mara, president and CEO of World Wide Security, told Security Systems News.

CCTV provided video and access control services, but it did not offer burg or fire installation or monitoring. World Wide Security, which provides video, access, burg, and fire,  has its own UL-listed central station.

Hence, the deal brings much more than new high-end customers; it offers the potential for revenue growth and added RMR.

“We think it's a good opportunity to sell fire alarm monitoring and burglar alarm [systems],” Mara said, adding that World Wide is N.Y. City-approved for fire alarm monitoring.

In addition to burg and fire, World Wide will offer the new customers upgraded video and access control services.

Mara said that World Wide will do “close to $8 million this year and with this deal, we could do $9 [million] or $10 [million]. [With potential new business and added RMR], I'm thinking in the next year or so we'll be able to hit $10 million. That's my personal goal.”

Wyn Grant is staying on with World Wide as manager of CCTV Service, a new division of World Wide created as a result of the deal.

Grant is introducing Mara and his team to CCTV's customers. “He has very strong contacts with this clients,” Mara said.

Mara also sees potential for growth with CCTV Security's realty management company clients. Those clients own buildings with hundreds of other companies—and potential customers for World Wide, Mara pointed out.

Mara said World Wide “has a great funding source in CapitalSource, which has indicated they'll support us wholeheartedly in the future.”

Recently, World Wide has begun to offer remote visitor management systems, and it's a niche that Mara sees as very promising.

And it's also one that can bring in RMR from “a single-family brownstone to a 180-unit affordable housing complex … to summer homes in the Hamptons,” according to Seth Barcus, World Wide's director of managed services.

The company has also invested in SureView's Immix  system and Manitou for its central station and is offering GPS tracking focused on the banking industry. “In [just] two months, we have 700 [GPS] devices online for tracking,” said World Wide CFO Mark Simson.

World Wide operates four security companies: World Wide Security, GC Alarm, Rainbow Protection, Telestat Security and Dart Security Services.

It is “actively involved in negotiations with other potential acquisitions,” Simson said.