September 26, 2008
While people were wondering about the economy the ASIS show took place. Among the market segments we find interesting are:
Analytics – Cost savings from software that can multiply the capability of security personnel is attractive to customers.
Integration of Multiple Systems I – Another software play that seems to be experiencing success is the policy-based system that can quickly determine the appropriate response to a multiple inputs from various sensors or security systems.
Integration of Multiple Systems II – We think that the convergence of physical and logical access control and the more general theme of fully integrated security and building control/automation is an area that continues to be of interest to many parties.
Multi-Use Platforms – Software that enables dual or multiple use of data, for example gathering customer behavior for marketing purposes using existing surveillance systems, improves the cost effectiveness of installing hardware, making it more desirable.
Scanning Systems – X-ray systems for baggage and cargo scanning continue to see strong demand.
IR Camera Systems – Our recent experience selling Janos Technology has shown that thermal imaging systems are (apologies for the pun) very hot right now.
1 Comment | 
Tradeshow Recaps | Tagged: Security | 
Permalink
Posted by Peter Yu ptyu@gtadvisors.com
September 17, 2008
In case it hasn’t struck you, the optical communication hangover is over. Maybe the clearest signal was the February 2007 departure of Giorgio Anania from Bookham after the collapse of the merger that was never announced.
Enough time has passed that customers are looking at new technology. They have chewed up a lot of the excess capacity in their networks or expect to in the next couple of years. How will they deal with the network bottlenecks that are now on the planning horizon? Will they move to higher speed networks? Must they deploy new fiber in the core and closer to the customer? All of these questions are coming back to the table. For the supply chain that lives beneath the service providers, the question has become; do I have what my customer is going to want in the new wave of demand that is beginning to build?
I late 2006, we represented Paxera, an emerging tunable laser supplier, in its search for a strategic acquirer. That was the first sale of a company at such an early stage in its development that we had undertaken in more than five years. We had reservations when considering the opportunity, but for a variety of reasons we convinced ourselves to move ahead. Probably the most important was our sense that buyer interests were shifting away from the “industry consolidation” moves of the prior four or five years and on to positioning for growth. That’s how we would characterize the intentions behind Finisar’s acquisition of Optium and the pending combination of Optium and Stratalight.
We would not tell you the last consolidation move has happened in the sector, but we would caution sellers that the value proposition if heading down this avenue today may not be a rewarding as you are hoping.
Leave a Comment » | Thinking About M&A?, Topics on Our Mind | Permalink
Posted by Kevin C. Slocum, Managing Director, kslocum@gtadvisors.com
September 8, 2008
Our sale of Janos Technology to Fluke generated a great deal of interest from potential acquirers, perhaps more than we have seen in the past five years. More than ten companies scheduled meetings to talk with Janos’ management team and hear its business opportunity, and strong competition throughout the sale process resulted in substantial value for our client. Our conclusion: the future for thermal imaging remains bright.
While there are many uses for IR imaging including, fire & rescue, surveillance, night vision and inspection, one fast-growing market segment is driver vision enhancement or DVE. We have all seen advertisements for automobiles that can see in the dark and identify potential road hazards such as people, disabled vehicles or animals well before they are illuminated by standard headlights. Although introduced many years ago, DVE for civilian production vehicles are just now getting significant traction, primarily in the luxury vehicle market, with Hummer, Lexus and BMW offering it in certain vehicles. DVE has also become a staple of military vehicles which are under the constant threat of attack from insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. In these high-threat areas, soldiers have taken a page from early pioneers of the old western United States by circling their vehicles at night. With DVE systems pointed outward, these formations offer the protection of armored walls having 360 degree night vision surveillance capability.
Fluke’s purchase of Janos signals a mainstreaming of IR technology to a very wide range of applications. Just as Fluke’s electronic multi-meter has become a ubiquitous measurement tool, IR systems look poised to become very commonplace vision enhancement solutions in the near future.
2 Comments | Technologies, Topics on Our Mind | Tagged: IR Cameras, Thermal Imaging | Permalink
Posted by Peter Yu ptyu@gtadvisors.com
