Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/31496
SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS FEBRUARY 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com Monitronics, Ascent discuss acquisition By Daniel Gelinas SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Prior to an Ascent investor call on Dec. 20, Monitronics president and CEO Mike Haislip told Security Systems News in an exclusive interview why he felt the acquisition was a sign of good things to come. “We’re really excited about this because it brings a lot of stabil- Verizon Continued from page 1 George DeMarco told Security Systems News in an email interview [see story, page 14]. CSAA Board of Directors member Joe Miskulin agrees the situation warrants atten- tion. “It will be interesting to see how Verizon plans to service this offering,” Miskulin said. “There is the potential for some customers leaving their current alarm monitoring companies in order to save money on a bundled service.” Verizon said its intent is to have the solution be a do-it-yourself install, but will partner where end users desire. “We will recommend local installers for folks in the latter camp,” said Verizon director of media relations Alberto Canal via email from the CES show. Canal said a variety of factors made now the right time to move into the security space. Verizon began a New Jersey- based pilot program for the new service in January. SSN Monitronics Continued from page 1 release, Monitronics will soon be the sole operating subsidiary of Ascent. “It would be logical to won- der why Ascent would ... invest in a new operating company,” Holloway said. “The cable industry has unpredictable costs like pro- gramming, whereas security has very predictable cash flows with lower attrition than cable.” “We looked at ... businesses with good recurring cash flow.” —John Orr, Ascent Ascent EVP John Orr said the decision to buy Monitronics was an easy one. “We looked at ... businesses with good recurring cash flow, predictable revenue streams, leveragable cash flow, good management teams,” Orr said. “We really like [Monitronics CEO Mike] Haislip and [CFO Mike] Meyers. We really like this business model.” SSN ity having someone like Ascent behind us. It’s their first foray into security, but we think it’s a very good fit.” Haislip noted that Ascent “understands the RMR business. They’ve been in cable TV. They understand how our business model works.” The fact that Ascent chose Count on to invest in the security indus- try, “says a lot,” Haislip said, “and it’s going to be great for us and our dealer pro- gram moving forward.” Haislip and Monitronics’ CFO Mike Meyers will be staying on “These guys have a good management team.” —John Orr, Ascent with the company going forward. In fact, accord- ing to Ascent EVP John Orr, the manage- ment team at Monitronics was one of the strong selling points for the company. “When we look at making acquisitions we’re looking at management as being the key asset of what you’re acquiring. These guys have a good management team and it was a very important consideration in doing this deal,” Orr told Security Systems News. “We’d be foolish to think we could come in and do things better than they’re doing them.” SSN when disaster strikes! Being “disaster ready” involves more than just fault tolerant equipment and backup systems. It also relies on people. However, local conditions can prevent dispatchers from getting to work to handle your alarms. Because we own and operate 3 strategically located hometown central stations (with a 4th scheduled to open in early 2011), if local conditions affect one of our locations, we continue to deliver fast and professional service by overstaffi ng our other load-sharing centers. From a systems perspective, not all UL-listed central stations are created equally. In addition to our three mainframes running our monitoring software at our headquarters, we have two more redundant mainframes located in an off-site secure data center in Las Vegas, NV ─ giving your data, and your company, an added layer of protection that other central stations just don’t have. Isn’t it time you entrusted your business to the proven reliability of COPS? Monitoring America from New Jersey, Florida, Arizona, and soon... Tennessee MONITORING 27 YOUR FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. New Jersey | Florida | Arizona Toll Free: 800.367.2677 | Fax: 856.629.4043 | sales@copsmonitoring.com | www.copsmonitoring.com CA – ACO6132, DE – 05-85, FL – EF20000481, IL – 127-001299 MD – 107-840, TN – 00000632, TX Burg – B11561, TX Fire – ACR-2215, VA – 11-1941