Such a messy eater!

Schneider to gobble up Tyco?

The larger companies in the security business get, the more like huge, hideous monsters from 1950s B movies they like to act. They trudge along real slow, they roar a lot, some of them are able to shoot laser beams out of their eyes! One thing they all got in common is their insatiable appetite to get even bigger and more monster-like, somehow forgetting along the way that if they don't stop gowing they won't be able to fit back into their flying saucers if they need to escape back to Planet Zarko...

It wasn't a big surprise that somebody bought GE Security, the only thing that surprised me was WHO bought it. I've listened to so many GE guys and UTC guys justify the whole thing since the buyout. They all tell a great story about how wonderful it all is, and how powerful the brand has become, but I remain unconvinced. When you put a whole bunch of sheep in a field and let the farmer loose late at night, sometimes he can't decide which one he should marry...

So now we have Monsieur Le Schneider. Not content with buying Pelco when they already had a CCTV company it now looks like they could buy Tyco...so they get another CCTV company (well...if two is better than one, three must be better than two) and at least three more access control companies to add to the one they have already! Tyco was already a confusing little Frankenstein that's gone through a lot of pain to remain where it is. Now it can be sewn onto the side of Schneider (I'm going to call it Le Franc from now on) to make an even weirder barrel of competitors all trying to carve up the same pie under the same parent group.

Am I confused? Well I sure am bemused.

I remember being in with some guys from Schneider about a year or so ago, and they were totally convinced that they had the whole security market sewn up with their integrated building management/access control/security products. They were talking all about how everyone in security would inevitably move over onto BACNET and abandon the folly of their current direction. In my usual friendly way I told them they were all full of "Le Merd" and bid them a fond farewell.

So have they now realised that they are all up le creek without le paddle? Have they now decided that the best thing they should do is buy a couple of market leading brands to hedge their bets?

Maybe, so why go with Software House and Kantech? Same type of decision they made when they decided to get into IP CCTV...so they bought Pelco...

Our survey said : UGH UGGGGHHHH!!

Okay, there's the whole ADT side of things. Monitoring centers, domestic intruder alarms, long term recurring income across the globe. There's the fire business (everybody who's in the fire business loves the fire business...when they're in it), there's the EAS thing with Sensormatic dominating much of the industry (kinda...), but this is all "old school". It's all yesterday's security industry. GE snuffed out all the R&D in Interlogix and elsewhere when they took over. They tried to stay "hi-tec" by buying a few companies with bright ideas, but they just didn't invest the way an innovator needs to if they're going to stay an innovator. You see something similar with Tyco.

Where will it all end? It's getting to be like these few enormous snakes trying to swallow their own tails now. Maybe they'll eventually just disappear in a puff of self acquisition...I don't know. I just wish I had all that money to invest in nice small agile teams of clever people creating cool new products for the cool new world.