Linear Purchases CCTV Firm Aigis

Sept. 6, 2007
Acquisition adds surveillance to home technologies, access and security offerings

Linear, a division of Nortek, which recently purchased IEI, Niles, Panamax and SpeakerCraft, is continuing to build itself with strategic acquisitions.

The company announced this morning that it has purchased Aigis Mechtronics, a Winston-Salem, N.C., firm specializing in video surveillance/CCTV. Aigis, which is on the web at www.aigismech.com, offers video capture devices such as enclosures, camera mounting hardware, integrated camera-and-housing packages, miniature cameras, as well as video displays designed for public view scenarios. The company's technology doesn't stop at cameras, housings, mounts and monitors, however. Aigis also sells a line of full-height access control turnstiles, specifically the kind common in transit station entrances and other locations where turnstile avoidance needs to be effectively prevented.

It's the CCTV component of Aigis Mechtronics' product line that has Linear excited, said Linear Chairman Grant Rummell. "Aigis will make us more comprehensive and appealing in the marketplace."

According to Aigis President/CEO Keith Todd, the acquisition puts the kind of financial and marketing backing behind his company that it needs to grow. The company expects to expand its own product lines, and will remain based at its North Carolina facility.

The acquisition of Aigis, whose products are heavily focused on commercial security systems, expands Linear's offerings, which had been highly biased on the home systems side of the market place. The group within Nortek that Aigis will join is the Linear Home Technology Group, which had specialized in products such as lighting systems, residential A/V, wireless security, structured wiring and even garage door electronics, as well as Linear's security and access control offerings. Nortek, the parent company of Linear, offers a variety of residential and commercial systems, from HVAC to residential "convenience" technologies, security and even facility/home ventilation technology.

The purchase price for Aigis was not disclosed.