Tag: P1

ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—As part of Protection 1's effort to grow its national accounts business, the company's senior management is asking national retailers, banks and other such nationwide companies what they want from a security provider. And Jamie Haenggi, Protection 1's chief marketing & customer experience officer, said the company was surprised to learn from its new “Your Voice” research that all the national accounts clients listed as No. 1 a very simple thing: on-time installations. “It's...

YARMOUTH, Maine—As 2010 draws to a close the editors at Security Systems News take a look back and see what the most read stories of the year were. What was making the news? What were you most interested in knowing? Below is a non-sequential, categorized rundown of the top 10 most read stories on our site from Jan. 1 to Dec. 11, followed by a linked top 10 list. The top category for 2010 was “For sale/SOLD!” Acquisition stories had a large showing in 2010 with a full half of the...

LAWRENCE, Kan., and CHICAGO—Equity firm GTCR announced today the acquisition of Protection One, the second-largest security alarm company in North America, now that ADT and Broadview have combined. Our lead story has the ins and outs of the whys and whos, including interviews with ProOne CEO Richard Ginsburg, Michael Barnes, John Mack, and principal of GTCR David A. Donnini. However, for those of you interested in raw numbers, here's a breakdown of the deal, using numbers pulled from the press...

LAWRENCE, Kan., and CHICAGO—Jim Covert and Tim Whall will be back in the security business following the close of a $828 million deal, announced today, where private equity group GTCR acquires Protection One. “Jim will be a board member and serve as an advisor, and Tim will be the CEO,” said David Donnini, GTCR principal, who noted that GTCR has worked with Covert and Whall, notably with the Cambridge Protection and HSM deals, over the past 15 years. “We teamed up with Tim...

LAWRENCE, Kan.—Three days after the largest security company (ADT) announced it was buying the second-largest alarm company (Broadview Security), Protection One, the third largest alarm company, announced it is exploring its strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company. “The financial markets are much stronger now than they were a year or so ago. Our company is performing well, and our balance sheet is in great shape,” Richard Ginsburg, Protection One CEO told Security...

LAWRENCE, Kan.--The new year is starting off happy here for Protection One, which today announced it received a $22.75 million payment from Westar, its former majority owner. "It's a significant amount of money," said Richard Ginsburg, CEO of Protection One. "In an era when companies are struggling, we've paid down our debt a lot, $74 million throughout the year, so we're entering 2010 with $20 million cash on hand." The $22.75 million is a post-closing adjustment from an acquisition, which took...

LAWRENCE, Kan.—You certainly can't fault Protection One for subtlety in its advertising. Web banners went up all over the industry last month with a simple message: “We're buying.” Pro One CEO Richard Ginsburg didn't mince words, either, when describing the company's motivation: “We're here, we have capital, we know how to integrate acquisitions, and we've done more than most people have. We want to get people reengaged with us, remind them that we are a buyer of accounts.” So,...

TOPEKA, Kan.—The long saga of the sale of Protection One ended in mid-February, when former parent company Westar Energy finalized its sale to New York-based investment firm Quadrangle Group LLC. Quadrangle paid Westar $122 million for Protection One, which comprises more than 2,300 employees and more than a million commercial and residential customers, and all of its debt. Westar acquired the company in 1997 for $320 million. For Richard Ginsburg, president and chief executive officer of Protection...