After initial rumours that Securitas might buy back Niscayah, after Niscayah spun out of Securitas in 2006, it is Stanley Black and Decker that has finally negotiated terms to acquire the Swedish-based Integrator. This is a further push into Europe by Stanley, following its acquisition of ADT ‘s French monitoring and systems integration business in March 2010.

In terms of the statistics, this takes Stanley straight to no.2 in the market shares for systems integration in Europe, behind only ADT. There is also a boost for Stanley in the US market shares, with the combined companies estimated as the third largest integrator.

The US market for security services has seen a number of acquisitions recently. In the alarm monitoring market: Broadview were bought by ADT, Protection One by GTCR and Monitronics by Ascent Media. Similarly, the systems integration market has seen several acquisitions with North American Video announcing the acquisition of Nexus, just this week, for example, but Europe has not quite seen the same scale of acquisition.

My feeling is that there is another big European acquisition to come. Securitas have shown that they have the money, at least; ADT may be feeling pressure to secure their position at the top and Stanley has already shown a willingness to spend. However, compared to the US market, where the top 15 integrators account for just over 30% of the market, the European market is already more consolidated, with the top 15 accounting for over 50% of the market. This might limit room for manoeuvre for M and A activity.

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