USBX, which has become a leading broker of top mergers and acquisitions, today released its second quarter industry report.
Chief industry trends according to USBX's report were 1) continued strength in mergers and acquisitions, 2) a low-point in homeland security valuations, 3) increased pace towards converged IT/physical security projects, 4) asset tracking coming of age as RFID moves from tag-centric to a solutions mindset, and 5) consolidation in IT enterprise security. USBX's stats put M&A activity at almost the same level of Q1 2006, which the company reports as the record quarter in merger and acquisition activity.
USBX indicated that the growth of EMC, which acquired RSA Security recently, as well as Proactivity, Kashya and nLayers, to give it footprints in everything from process management software to storage virtualization. Also in the realm of security M&As, USBX tagged value upon the Viisage acquisition of Iridian and Secure Computing's acquisition of CipherTrust.
USBX is clearly closely watching the realm of RFID. Second quarter news saw Lockheed Martin acquire Savi Technology, linking a top government contractor with a leading RFID solutions company. The read on this, say USBX researchers, is that "more RFID transactions are imminent."
From radio frequency identification the USBX market report moves back to the world of identification, where it underscores the importance of Assa Abloy/HID's acquisition of Fargo Electronics, creating a chain of command that reaches from the manufacturing of smart cards to the actual delivery and printing of those cards.
Integration and Convergence
While USBX has always been heavily focused on the manufacturing and global services providers, the company's research also points for a rosy time for the world of integration, especially government IT integrators. With major contracts to be announced by the DHS, including the government IT project known as Eagle, and the looming follow-through on HSPD-12 implementations, USBX is anticipating acquisition activity. In summary, says USBX's report, "Emerging DHS IT integrators will be prime acquisition targets as larger, DHS contracts are awarded."
Convergence has stayed on the radar. Especially with the move that Cisco made into the physical security industry. USBX reports that IT companies will be on the move to gain physical security market share. No less significant was the partnership between Cisco and IBM that saw a revamping of alarm, ID and access systems at Cisco facilities. The IT players reported a "20% reduction in maintenance costs and a 90% reduction in false alarms."
For more of USBX's report on the IT and physical security marketplace, point your mouse to http://www.usbx.com/industries/security/USBX%20Security%20Report%20Q2%202006.pdf where you can read the company's summary report for free.
