By Marlene Givant Star and Joshua Armstrong, with analytics by Lana Vilner
Once a very sleepy business, 911 centers are seeing a surge of investment lately.
“A lot of VC money is coming into the market,” says Robert Chefitz, managing partner of security-focused private equity firm Egis Capital.
According to Mergermarket data, the subsector saw 10 deals in the last three years—more than in all prior years. The $237 million acquisition of Plant Holdings by Motorola Solutions in July 2017 was one example. Motorola, Intrado and Allegiance Mobile Health each completed at least two acquisitions over that span, the data show.
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the 911 system. A lot has changed since the system was launched. One company (AT&T) controlled all of the nation’s phone lines, and another company (Motorola) managed all fire, police and ambulance radio communications, Chefitz notes.
Now, by contrast, there are hundreds of phone companies – land lines, voice over internet protocol and cellular. Land lines represent less than 50% of all US phone lines, he adds.
Demand for strong cybersecurity around the industry has grown as tech-centric threats have increased. New technologies including cloud, internet of things and 5G, will redefine the security landscape that includes the 911 and Public Safety Answering Point industry, Chefitz says.
Similarly, the number of companies aiming to provide tech services to 911 operators has grown.
Mission Critical Partners, which Egis acquired in January 2018 to serve as a platform in the space, made its first acquisition under the private equity owner in November 2018. Others include venture capital-backed RapidSOS, Intrado, owned by Apollo; Comtech, which acquired the 911 business of General Dynamics; and Motorola, which bought the 911 assets of Airbus, according to Chefitz.
“There’s a lot of similar technology to command and control in defense that’s crossing into the 911 space,” Chefitz notes.
Among other venture capital-backed businesses, Carbyne is raising its second round of capital. The first round was provided by Founders Fund. Another player is Rave Mobile Safety, which received funding from Technology Crossover Ventures.
Vernon Guillermo, CEO of Agile, a first responder communications company, says he is not seeing much pure M&A but rather strategic partnerships around the 911 space.
Because this is still a developing and growing market, companies are aligning with peers to bridge technology gaps necessary to offer comprehensive solutions to first responders. For example, Guillermo says companies that are radio- or cellular-centric communications need interoperable solutions so that they can communicate directly and securely with each other. Similarly, companies that require the transfer of large amounts of data such as streaming live video need a reliable conduit source that has the capacity to handle large amounts of data.
“Perhaps in the near-term future there will be more M&A activity as sales and opportunities start to plateau,” adds Guillermo.
Marlene Givant Star is New York editor-sector coverage, for Mergermarket and Dealreporter. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Joshua Armstrong is Southeast bureau chief for Mergermarket. Lana Vilner is head of research-Americas for Mergermarket.
