Avigilon Acquired By Motorola

Well. We all saw that coming.

Just not from Motorola....

Hmm.. nice... let's see now...

I personally don't expect any impact on Avigilon solutions or to their dealers. There are many big names sold to unusual buyers and still going strong.

It is too early for me to decide if it is negative or not.  Neutral for now.

i am having definite flashbacks to the Panasonic push to cross-sell toughbooks and monitors.

It is not quite as disconcerting as some of the potential purchasers mentioned (Schneider, Hik, Dahua) in the past.  I still would be a bit more excited if it was a company with an industry relevant past that may boost one or the others product line - Hanwha for example.  My biggest concern is what this means for any future product development and how soon we will be competing against Motorola radio dealers. If product development stalls for a year Avigilon will die on the vine... the H4A line is aging rapidly, the multi-heads are the last H3 products, and the Pro series has stagnated for a while. 

As long as they leave us alone, keep the same distribution model, and continue to develop the product in a logical manner I could see it being neutral.  Let’s call this the Canon model.

Come on, Avigilon dealers, be honest, this is your real reaction:

Well, now...

Motorola is finally back in the video business. We sold a ton of it. They use to make the best cameras back in the day (late 60's early 70s). They had their own integrated FSK control, with audio channel as well. What goes around, comes around. It will be pure nostalgia to see that logo on a camera once more.

The big question is commitment. They use to own the 2-way biz, had all first responders. Would seem a natural to get heavy into city surveillance. Time will tell.

As regards radio dealers selling CCTV systems, it will probably not happen.  A few years ago, we represented a product line that required us to call on radio dealers, both Motorola and their competitors.  Many were interested in our security lines, and some tried to bring security products to their end users, but I am aware of only one dealer who both succeeded in adding security to their customers, and is still doing so five years later.

I suspect Motorola corporate, rather than their dealers, will be trying to leverage security into their very large customers.

If memory serves me, Motorola tried this decades ago.

As an integrator, it concerns me greatly that Motorola is ready to go direct to the end user. If there is no 'protection', the big clients can circumvent the integrator. 

Oh, and I am guessing Avigilon's Founder / CEO Alex Fernandes will be stepping down soon enough. Anyone particularly agree / disagree?

This will be part of thier Command Central Aware platform. 

They are pushing integration with video into this platform as seen more recently in Detroit and New Orleans.

They have been using Genetec mostly. 

Could this be a winner?

I see a couple things coming out of this, first the continuation of National integrators acquiring and leading with their own product lines  - JCI being the most recent example with Tyco / AD / Exacq / SWH

I also foresee them trying to open up VMS relationships to move their camera lines. While the Avigilon VMS is a decent product, it's not truly enterprise level. Fernandes didn't want to integrate / work with anyone else and that ultimately lead to their demise.

IMO Motorola will try to cut into Axis market share on the upper end lines, if the cameras at are able to compete at that level

Since the name merger will start as soon as the Undisclosed person who is great at Photoshop jumps in:

Motolon?

Avigirola?

Areola?

Don’t know much about Motorola’s offerings. I would assume this could potentially mean more cameras with more robust integrated wireless capabilities. If anything this will be interesting to watch. 

This is all about computer vision driven smart cities.  You don't make a billion dollar acquisition taking a public company private to worry about double digit percentage fluctuations in monthly P&L's.  This is long term, large scale.  Entire mega cities will be driven by public sector cameras, fixed mounted all over public infrastructure, and fully connected with (for Motorola's big interest) mobile cameras on every public sector vehicle and employee.  All unified with Motorola communications and network infrastructure and it's a long range match made in heaven.

In short term I believe that makes it good for current Avigilon dealers, main body employees, and overall maintenance to their existing channel, which they'll likely only want to see grow on top of their megaproject combinations.  And now they can custom tune all the products to their exact integrated computer vision needs.

I don't think any of us saw this coming and no amount of aggressive research and speculation could have led us to this conclusion... Reality really is stranger than fiction.

What does this say about the state of the industry as a whole? Is everything bound to be absorbed by conglomerates sooner or later?

I wonder which takeover would have resulted in all positive comments.

having worked for AVO for close to 5 years I am happy so far with the news. I can understand where Motorola is coming from and the future will tell. The rest uttered here is 99% speculation.

And if they need to expand, they can load-up on pre-trained, experienced Avigilon personnel by buying IndigoVision.

We have a very comparable product if any one would

like to discuss distribution 

mick

Update: Here is the 101-page acquisition agreement between Motorola and Avigilon. Analysis to follow later.

Out of interest any western companies still in this business

japan

china 

korea

genetec Canada 🇨🇦 

qvis uk 🇬🇧 

the worlds national security being handed over to Asia 

"Losers - Avigilon Dealers

Motorola Solutions focuses on selling their own offerings (e.g., radios most notably) direct to end users, as their website shows here:"

By this simple fact they were aquired how you came to the point all dealers MUST sell radios?

Interesting, but they are not known for their innovative spirit.

100% about the integration of body cameras to their radios. 

Didnt read the whole string, someone might have already mentioned,  but as someone who worked in Schneider Electric's Buildings Business on the Security Side, during the entire Pelco buyout and re-organization, Im here to tell ya, Avigilon and its dealers and customers will suffer from this.  A company that does only one thing, being acquired by a conglomerate that does many things, usually ends up in an organizational s***show.

Who here thinks Pelco got BETTER after the SE acquisition?  The same will hold true for Avigilon, mark my words.  And if Motorola finds it to be not as profitable as their shareholders (or CEO) likes, it will get re-shopped and re-sold, etc etc.

Avigilon will now be nothing more than a pawn piece to be moved around at the will of the player/s.  Gook luck on the R&D and innovating side, Avigilon. Hard to get funding for that when there are 2 dozen other divisions that have nothing to do with CCTV who are fighting you for the same limited funds.

The Avigilon board on StockHouse has some entertaining comments from people thinking this will be the start of a bidding war for Avigilon:

I think Avigilon share holders, and several integrators, are in denial right now, hoping there is a better end to the AVO story than this.

Yeah,...........Ok.   So, lets take something that was really good, working fine, getting better and better every year, had a singular purpose and direction, was well respectedat a global level, employed countless numbers of American citizens, and was considered, at one time and by many in the industry, to be the crown jewel of the CCTV industry.

Lets take that, buy it out by a Mega-Giant, run by the French, based in Paris, and whose core business has nothing to do with Security or CCTV, cut off its R&D, split it up into smaller parts,  close its manufacturing doors in the US, lay off countless number of loyal and in some cases life-time employees, reduce its customer support funding and staff, move at least some of that manufacturing over seas to....where?.......China, and all to quantify something as "important" (comparative to the lives and customers impacted)  as shareholder value?

We should agree to disagree that the whole SE/Pelco experience was a good one for all concerned and to be emulated when and where possible.  The employees of Avigilon are, no doubt as we speak, are listening to someone, somewhere, saying that "Nothing will change and this move is really a good thing for Avigilon and its employees".

Time will tell either way.

Reading thru everything it was said: "even in their announcement, is saying how they are going to directly integrate / offer Avigilon products within their broader portfolio."

The press release said:  

The company holds more than 750 U.S. and international patents.

“This acquisition will bring Avigilon’s advanced video surveillance and analytics platform to the rapidly evolving public safety workflow, while also expanding our portfolio with new products and technologies for commercial customers,” said Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions.

Maybe Motorola knows something about the patents and see's the real value hidden in the patent portfolio?

Yes, it was my distinct recollection that Schneider Electric also had a PR division which invested 18-20 minutes producing an announcement-day statement of similar content and with equally dubious results.  Pelco also had many patents.  Even though Avigilon was publicly traded, it was tightly-controlled and operated in a singularly-focused way much like a privately held one.    Like I said before, publicly-traded companies with many divisions function in a fundamentally different way than people realize.  With this merger, Avigilon dealers and, especially employees, are going to absolutely find that it most certainly will NOT BE business as usual.

Ironic is Motorola was acquired by Lenovo. A China based company.

Surprised no one has mentioned this possibility - perhaps Motogilon cameras become much more open with other VMS (actually integrating their analytics into other VMS, rather than relying on limited ONVIF connections).

The software doesn't seem to play at the true enterprise level, and perhaps it's easier / more profitable for Motorola to bring the cameras and analytics into other systems rather than hope for Avigilon software to get to the big time?

This has a particular nostalgia for me, since I was a Printrak employee when (then) Motorola acquired Printrak (primarily for the computer aided dispatch business). More significantly, the "solutions" side of Motorola subsequently acquired Symbol Technologies.

Later, as the ups and downs of the phone side of the business went down, Motorola/Motorola Solutions subsequently spun off many of these acquisitions to concentrate on core businesses. (The fingerprint part of Printrak is now within IDEMIA, while Symbol and other enterprise-related business ended up with Zebra Technologies as Motorola concentrated on its public safety business.)

I wouldn't be surprised if Motorola Solutions redirects Avigilon towards more government sales. It still seems to view the market as (a) police radios, and (b) things that complement police radios.

I'm going take the contrarian route and say that this will be a good deal for Avigilon, it's resellers and Motorola (at least for the next 3-4 years.)

I believe Motorola's direct end user sales concerns are seriously overblown.  Most of these 'direct' sales are long term, negotiated, infrastructure (proprietary wireless) sales to municipalities/public safety entities with extensive service contracts.  There's no shortage of Motorola 'radio/device' dealers out there and they are almost universally uninterested, unwilling or unable to pull off enterprise projects for IP video surveillance systems. 

For Motorola to execute an end around Avigilon dealers to sell/install/support city wide surveillance systems they would require a massive, bottom line punishing investment in manpower and skill sets.  As a public company, I don't think Motorola would be willing to make such an investment in fixed costs.  I see it much more likely that the Motorola infrastructure sales teams work with preferred Avigilon dealers to get equipment specified and roll up projects as part of negotiated, long-term agreements with which they are so successful. 

On the commercial/enterprise side, I see virtually no conflict with Motorola's existing products/services/channels and Avigilon's.

On the downside, we can expect the usual consolidation in back office, manufacturing operations and possibly R&D.  This will likely result in slowing the pace of innovation in Avigilon video hardware products and some customer service hiccups but nothing like Pelco experienced.  While I agree with UI14 that the vast majority of acquisitions by mega conglomerates have been soul destroying 'sh**shows' (been there for three of them), there have been exceptions. 

For all the Schneider, Honeywell, GE, Tyco, etc acquisitions that have had the life blood squeezed out of them, there's a Canon that gives us hope.  In addition, Avigilon immediately becomes the networked video center of excellence for Motorola Solutions.  Many of the previously mentioned acquirers bought innovative, fast growing video companies to make up for their lack of internal development and/or loss of market share.  However, since they were mere rounding errors in the quarterly income statement, they soon became bureaucratic road kill, squeezed for profits and not viewed as a growth engine for the mother ship.  Even our beloved old Pelco made up less than 3% of Schneider's global sales at it's height.  Avigilon is closer to 8% of Motorola's global sales and has a faster rate of growth then the parent company which gives me hope for how Motorola handles Avigilon.  

Conversely, it's not hard to envision additional investments on the software development side as tighter integration with Motorola's infrastructure solutions as well as body cam and in-car video systems becomes a competitive differentiator.  And if Motorola's ultimate goal in acquiring Avigilon is to be the 'Safe City' company they will have to make regular investments in software development as well as acquiring key technologies in sensors, analytics and machine learning.  If so, these should benefit Avigilon and Avigilon resellers.

My biases include a long time admiration from afar of Avigilon, several of its key personnel that I've worked with at different companies and their successful, methodical global expansion.  Specifically, I admire how they executed with a high-end/high performance/high cost model when the market aggressively commoditized.  I admire how they protected their resellers/brand while the integrity of industry distribution channels became questionable (to be kind).  Finally, I'm still amazed that they succeeded with end-to-end, relatively closed systems when the industry screamed for 'open'.  True, the founder's deep pockets played a big part in helping them establish a beachhead where so many others withered and died but it also took some serious mettle and discipline to believe and keep at it until they became profitable.  I have not worked for nor competed directly with Avigilon.

I'm in the bidding stage of investing approximately $250,000 on an expansion project for a 75 camera system using Avigilon and replacing the head end of a 450 analog camera system with Avigilon. Then the goal is to have all analog cameras replaced with Avigilon IP cameras in five years.

Okay, what would you do? Go with it or look at something else?

Thanks for all the responses and dialogue. I'm in the casino industry and have been so for 27 years and have used American Dynamics from day one. That being said I've seen what has happened to AD since Tyco bought them and now a merger with Johnson Controls. I can only guess what may happen to AD down the road and it seems like it's starting already as I was recently notified that Tyco/AD will no longer provide tech support to the end user. I just don't feel comfortable going forward with them and that's why I'm looking at Avigilon.  

Interesting poll differences, with 400+ total responses, just 11% of integrators say that the deal with help Avigilon's competitiveness but 26% of manufacturers do. So while overall both are negative on the deal, manufacturers are more positive than integrators. 

Ok, Avigilon dealers, don't aim your pitchforks at me but this is Motorola's CEO on the investor's conference call emphasizing how they are going to use their "large direct sales force that serve enterprises in the commercial markets, so it's got very attractive channel synergies" [emphasis added]. So at least according to their CEO, they are not just going to sell direct for military and government but for commercial as well.

[IPVM Note: Avigilon Employee]

Can we think a little more critically here and be more consistent please?

First of all, no one knows the future of any company 5 years from now.  Who would have seen the almost complete departure of Dedicated Micros?  Or the train-wreck that was to become the current ONSSI post law-suit with Milestone?  Or in another industry - the complete demise of Motorola's cell phone sales in 2007 after being on top prior to that.  There are so many factors that will effect any company 5 years from now that are completely unknown to any of us.

Secondly, please be consistent in comparing apples to apples.  All of the "failed" acquisitions of security technology companies being used as evidence of the certain demise of Avigilon have been by physical security companies (i.e. Tyco, Scheider, etc).  The successful acquisition was done by a non-physical security company (Canon).  Motorola Solutions is not a Physical Security company.  If we are going to compare past acquisition history than this comparison needs to made to Canon and not to any of the others.  

Third - R&D.  Motorola has historically spent over 12% of revenue on R&D each year.  I'm sure that we can all agree that $900M is hardly a small pot of money from which to fund future R&D projects at Avigilon.  Let's remember that Motorola has the largest market share of public safety critical communication in North America and their goal is for Avigilon to also reach the top market share position and they know that will require R&D as well as not only continuing but growing even more in all the areas that have brought Avigilon to where they are today.  

Finally, go-to-market strategy.  Motorola has NOT said they are going to change Avigilon's go-to-market strategy.  They have never said that they will "sell direct" to anyone.  What they have said is that they will use their direct sales channel to bring Avigilon to their current customers.  That is, they have a team of 600 sales people customer facing on a daily basis.  Those 600 people will now be advocating for Avigilon with those customers.  This in no way implies a direct sale to those customers much in the same way that any manufacturer who pitches their product directly to the buyer is not conducting the transaction when that buyer decides to go with their product.  In essence, what just happened was Avigilon got 600 new salespeople who have over 1,000 public safety jurisdictions that they are going to try to introduce Avigilon to.  The result will be Avigilon's existing dealer base receiving gift wrapped sales - not being circumvented.  

Let's be fair in our assessment of this announcement on what is only the 3rd day since any of us became aware of it.  We will all see what the future holds in due time.  But if anything, my opinion is that the competition should be afraid of the money that will be infused into Avigilon's already impressive R&D as well as their increased exposure and that integrators who are currently Avigilon dealers should be excited about the potential for future growth and anyone who is not currently an Avigilon dealer would seriously consider trying to pick them up as a new product in their line.  

A proprietary product purchased by a proprietary company is a good match.

I knew that Avigilon would eventually sell but disappointed that it is to a company that sells direct.  Looks like our company is in the market for a new VMS.

Change is always good, for someone or others. I foresee consolidation to continue and eventually end-user shall have to choose from 4-5 top vendors if they are looking for an intelligent solution; else there shall be lots and lots of small fishes. Nothing in-between.

Most if not all product related responses have concerned the AVO cameras. Any opinions regarding the access control?

Did not take long for other manufacturers to start capitalizing on this:

#22...I have found that, in most cities and towns, there is one "go to" person for radio communications.  That person has built up a personal relationship with the PD and Fire entities. That dealer has been there at 3:00 AM when the Fire department has a communications issue, or when the Police need to borrow an extra radio pre-programmed to work with their their system. 

If that Motorola dealer does not want to get involved with CCTV, it will be very difficult for another Motorola dealer to inject themselves into the relationship.  In spite of the public bid laws, these departments ensure that the dealer who has been there for them over the years is the "go to" dealer. 

It is a different story for very large government agencies, of course, where corporate Motorola can have influence on the CCTV segment, but as the old saying goes, "All politics is local"

Update: Avigilon shareholders approved the acquisition with 98% vote, now just final paperwork. Avigilon expects it to be completely closed in the next week, just in time for ISC West! :)

Today, Avigilon announced that Motorola has completed the acquisition of Avigilon. The new company wordmark:

Motorola's EVP of Sales Jack Molloy did an interview this week about closing the Avigilon acquisition noting:

Avigilon historically has sold video solutions primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, Molloy said. Motorola Solutions wants Avigilon to continue this work, but a primary goal is to expose the Avigilon video solution platform to the public-safety and government customers that Motorola Solutions serves regularly, he said.

“That’s why they [Avigilon officials] said, ‘Wow, you guys [Motorola Solutions] have long-standing business with the U.S. federal government and have relationships at the state level and CIO level everywhere. You guys can really bring us into public safety, and we think we have the best solution for public safety,’” Molloy said.

Can someone give me an example in in the last 20 years where a large multinational corporation bought up a bunch of highly, but narrowly, focused smaller companies with the long-term intent on being "all things to all customers" -  and where it all worked out for the best and that global company actually became and retained their new found position as "all things to all customers"  I think even Apple, who has more resources at their disposal to try anything, has tried that and found it to be challenging. 

Or, as a shorter point or question,  in our business, is "All things to all people" a truly viable business model?  It has been our experience that just keeping the salespeople and technicians in the classroom as often as we need to to maintain quality in every aspect of what our industry touches is difficult and costly enough.   Metaphorically speaking, why do customers insist on having or seeing a General Practitioner to address a heart ailment instead of a cardiologist?   With all of these technologies changing and advancing at a very fast pace, and where technician proficiency is of the highest importance, is the value of one stop shopping really quantifiable or merely perception?

This is great discussion! 

When does simplistic system implementation and maintenance of an end to end solution out weigh the benefits of some sort of disruptive, unique, compelling technology that is a struggle to integrate and maintain? Or visa versa?

New Avigilon CEO video interview: 

Most noteworthy new comment made is that Avigilon is looking for a 'seamless experience' from video straight through to communications and devices first responders use. The latter is Motorola's core historic strength and implies deeper integration with that as a priority, which makes sense.