ASMAG Security Top 50 Rankings

Recently, we have received questions about using the ASMAG Security Top 50 Rankings. These rankings order security manufacturers based on total annual revenue, listing the 'top' manufacturers. While they can be helpful, it is easy to misuse them. In this note, we provide guidance on how to do so while not drawing misleading conclusions.

Estimating Revenue

The most important thing to understand is that revenue estimates for security companies can be difficult to determine. Many companies are private and do not release any numbers or only release unaudited numbers that may be inaccurate. Equally important, many of the biggest companies are part of conglomerates that do not disclose their security specific revenue.

Revenue Numbers Included

We believe most, but not all, of the manufacturer revenue listed is accurate, particularly those specialist manufacturers who are publicly traded and who ASMAG has verified from those records. Therefore, the best use of this list is as a quick reference of how 'big' the companies listed are.

Big Companies Missing

Scanning the list, it is obvious that a number of huge security players are missing, such as Panasonic, Pelco, Sony and UTC. They all certainly do hundreds of millions in security, they likely just did not disclose to ASMAG. Obviously, this does not mean that those companies are not 'top' in the industry.

Medium Sized Companies Missing

Beyond that, there are some medium size companies missing in the 2012 list. Dedicated Micros, ACTi, Genetec all did at least $30 million in 2012 revenue. Other companies that likely have the revenue to make that list, but did not include Computar Ganz, Dallmeier, D-Link, JVC, Canon, etc. There are certainly many others that are private and did not disclose but 'should' be there.

Interpreting Revenue Number 

Even if the revenue numbers are 'right', a critical issue is where that revenue is coming from. This is especially significant when looking at the Top 10, where most companies listed (like Honeywell, Bosch, Safran, Assa, Tyco) generate revenue from a wide range of security segments (video, access, intrusion, etc.) If you are just looking at one of those segments, the entire security market revenue will be highly misleading.

What to Do?

If you want a quick start on what revenue different manufacturers do, the ASMAG list is a good place to start. However, there are a number of critical flaws that make it nearly impossible to use this as a basis of comparison for different suppliers. Please do not use such a 'ranking' to judge quality, strength or suitability of manufacturers.