Investment
OnSSI Secures Growth Capital Investment
OnSSI announces the completion of a $16-million private placement by Seacoast Capital, an institutional investor focused on high quality companies based in the USA, with Imperial Capital acting as financial advisor and placement agent. Seacoast’s first investment in the company will be used to leverage OnSSI’s innovative technologies and reputation in large scale VMS to extend their reach into the middle market with an easy to install appliance and to expand the Business Video Intelligence (BVI) business of its affiliate, SeeTec GbmH.
Telstra Invests in Video Analytics Specialist
Telstra announced it has made an equity investment in Gorilla Technology Group, a Taiwanese-based global leader in video analytics for business intelligence, security, enterprise unified communications, education, and broadcast media and entertainment.
Pivot3 Announces Additional $45 Million in Corporate Financing
Pivot3, a pioneer and innovator in the development of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions, has announced a $45 million equity and bank financing closing today. Argonaut Private Equity, a new investor in Pivot3, joins S3 Ventures, InterWest Partners, Mesirow Financial Private Equity and the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati investment fund in providing additional equity in this closing.
Seeking Alpha: Anixter International Can’t Find a Suitor
Seeking Alpha is a platform for investment research, with broad coverage of stocks, asset classes, ETFs and investment strategy. They recently posted a summary on Anixter International. The company with its largest shareholder, Sam Zell, attempted to find a suitor earlier this year but was unable to find any takers.
WVU Biometric App Startup Raises Over $1M in Angel Investment
A biometric security start-up based out of West Virginia University has secured $1.25 million in angel investment. The company, called Confirmix, has been developing a new tool that will use facial recognition to unlock users’ mobile devices.
LiveOak Leads $3.5M Investment Round in Razberi Technologies
Razberi Technologies — a leading developer of network video solutions for professional video surveillance and security applications — has raised $3.5 million in capital led by Texas-based LiveOak Venture Partners and has appointed security industry veteran Ken Boyda as non-executive Chairman of the Razberi Technologies Board of Directors. The $3.5 million in Series A funding […]
Fear Factor And IP-Based Megapixel Video
The market’s long-established dependence upon analogue systems has added to a view that switching is just too difficult says Paul Taggar, pictured, Country Manager, UK and Ireland, at Arecont Vision. Misconceptions can be one of the biggest ‘fear factors’ to systems integrators and users when it comes to the application of IP-based video systems and […]
Head Of Facebook Canada Invests In Montreal Startup Tracktik
Montreal-based startup TrackTik, an integrated guard management solution provider, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Klass Capital. Also participating in the round was Jordan Banks, managing director of Facebook Canada; Craig Campbell, former CEO of Total Security Management (sold to Garda in 2013); and Adrian Schauer, serial entrepreneur, and former CEO of Vortex […]
Company Valuations For Systems Integrators: Recurring Revenue, Technology, Vertical Markets, Service, All Affect Value
Much has been written about how security dealers, with their profit-rich recurring monthly revenue (RMR), are valued in the marketplace, but the factors that go into valuating systems integration companies has been covered to a lesser extent. RMR — if any exists in the integrator business — certainly plays a role in determining value, but a distinction is made between RMR from monitoring and RMR from service. There are other similarities in how the two types of businesses are valued, such as service efficiencies and the composition of customer contracts. Differences exist in the type of technology the integrator offers and the vertical markets that comprise the client base. According to Bill Polk, managing director, CapitalSource, Chevy Chase, Md., the primary driver of valuations is the liquidity of capital markets. While the current economy has restrained the flow of capital to a degree, Polk believes low default rates characteristic of the security industry have and will continue to lead to rising valuations. “We’re in an environment where debt markets have come back,” Polk says. “The high-yield bond market has been extremely active over last 12 months and this is driving up value. Falling default rates, more competition and generally favorable economic reports are driving pricing down, which is making it cheaper to borrow.” Polk adds that in such a market, “the security industry has proven over the last 24 months a safe port in a storm.” Still, the availability of capital varies greatly for systems integrators ranging from the […]
Source www.sdmmag.com
Zwipe Raises $3.5M In Series A Funding
Zwipe , an Oslo, Norway-based global provider of biometric identity protection solutions, raised an additional $3.5m in Series A funding . Of the $3.5m, $2.5m was invested through a private placement, and the remaining $1m was a grant given by the Government of Norway. The company intends to use the funds to both expand the sales organization for the access control market, as well increase investment in technology development and application. Led by Kim Kristian Humborstad, CEO, Zwipe recently launched the Zwipe Access biometric card, which is based on a NFC (Near Field Communication) platform which users can use to authenticate themselves through pin code and fingerprint. It has no external database containing sensitive information as the fingerprint data is only stored inside the Zwipe card. The company has also added industry veteran Clas Thelin as new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zwipe. FinSMEs 11/12/2013 Government of Norway Zwipe
Source www.finsmes.com
Avigilon (AVO) DowngradedBy RBC Capital To Sector Perform
Share on StockTwits Avigilon (TSE:AVO) was downgraded by investment analysts at RBC Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Analyst Ratings Network reports. They currently have a C$31.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of C$28.00. RBC Capital’s price objective points to a potential upside of 0.03% from the company’s current price. Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Avigilon from C$27.00 to C$36.00 in a research note to investors on Wednesday. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at TD Securities initiated coverage on shares of Avigilon in a research note to investors on Wednesday, November 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a C$39.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at CIBC raised their price target on shares of Avigilon from C$20.00 to C$32.00 in a research note to investors on Thursday, November 7th. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Avigilon presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of C$27.61. Shares of Avigilon ( TSE:AVO ) traded down 0.84% on Wednesday, hitting $30.73. The stock had a trading volume of 201,295 shares. Avigilon has a 1-year low of $10.75 and a 1-year […]
Source www.americanbankingnews.com
Memoori Forecasts M&A Activity Between Now And 2017
http://www.asmag.com/project/BuyersGuide-ControlPanel/index.htm Print │ Click Frequency: 84 >> Back to Lists Source: Memoori Business Intelligence | Date: 11/22/2013 Related tags: Memoori , physical security Memoori’s new report “The Physical Security Business in 2013” shows that M&A activity in the Security Industry has grown by a compound annual rate of 7% over the last 14 years but during this time it has peaked and declined 4 times culminating with its value decreasing by 48% during the last 2 years. External forces have influenced this cyclical pattern but in the last 2 years internal consolidation matters have had more impact. With a drop of 48%, the value of merger and acquisition deals in 2013 was approximately $5.0 billion. 34 deals were identified in 2013 compared with 56 in 2012. The number of deals and total value of acquisitions has fallen, the average value of a deal has actually increased from $120m in 2011 to $147 million in 2013. There are 3 main reasons, namely the industry underwent a major restructuring during the period 2009 to 2011 and in the last 2 years has paused to consolidate that process, the lack of confidence and/or interest by the major conglomerates to commit more investment to the industry and finally the lack of buyers from outside the business, particularly Defense and IT. The positive news is that acquisition activity in the middle market, mainly populated by specialist security companies has significantly increased. 2013 has been a good year for acquisitions, irrespective of the fact that […]
Source www.asmag.com
Pivot3 Announces Another $14 Million Financing Round
Pivot3, a leading supplier of video surveillance and virtual desktop (VDI) converged infrastructure storage appliances, announced today that it has closed a significant financing round of more than $14 million in new investment and working capital to fund the company’s growth and its drive to sustained profitability in 2014. The round consists of additional equity funding as well as other financial support from investors and key business partners. The equity funding was led by InterWest Partners and Mesirow Financial Capital Partners, and included additional funding from Focus Ventures, Lightspeed Partners, Silver Creek Ventures, Northleaf Ventures and Wilson Sonsini. Comerica Bank also provided important financial support. Founded in 2003, Pivot3 pioneered the development of purpose-built virtualized storage appliances for the surveillance market. Since that time, the company has continued to strengthen its surveillance product line, most recently with the addition of the Pivot3 vSTAC ® Edge appliance for distributed environments. The company partners with Dell OEM Solutions for manufacturing, global service and support to bring its product to market. Pivot3 also leverages its own core technology platform to develop converged storage and compute hardware appliances that deliver simplicity, scalability and savings to virtual desktop environments. Today, Pivot3 accounts for more than 600 customers in industries ranging from corrections and education to government, healthcare and retail. “This financing is a testament to the innovation and great momentum we have established for our storage platforms in both surveillance and VDI,” said Bill Galloway, Chief Executive Officer, Pivot3. “This latest round of financial backing puts Pivot3 in […]
Source vmblog.com