GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, through its affiliate Cambridge Protection Industries, LLC, a security services company headquartered in Chicago, and SBC Communications Inc. have announced an agreement in which a Cambridge subsidiary will acquire the SecurityLink unit of Ameritech Corp., a subsidiary of SBC. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The closing of the transaction, which has already been approved by the boards of directors of the two companies, is subject for review by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice.
SecurityLink provides security monitoring services to more than 1 million residential, commercial and government customers throughout North America. SBC Communications is a global communications company, with subsidiaries that include Southwestern Bell, Ameritech, Pacific Bell, SBC Telecom, Nevada Bell and SNET. Cambridge is a national provider of electronic security services founded by GTCR Golder Rauner, a private equity investment firm, and James M. Covert.
Cambridge’s acquisition of SecurityLink will place Covert back on familiar ground. Covert founded SecurityLink Midwest in 1987 and sold the company to Ameritech in 1994. He remained SecurityLink’s CEO until 1996, when he relocated to Australia and founded the Signature Security Group, with offices throughout Australia and New Zealand. Covert’s background and experience played heavily in Cambridge’s efforts to capture SecurityLink.
“It’s fair to say we were in a very good position because we had our equity together and we were solid financially,” he told Security Sales. “Also, we know the company better than any new purchaser would. We were in the right place and in the right position at the right time to become the new owners.” According to Covert, although there is some business overlap between the companies that will have to be ironed out, the changes to SecurityLink will be related more to strategy than structure.
“For the most part, the business will proceed as it does now,” he adds. “However, we will focus on a very high level of customer service and turn our attention away from accelerated growth. I believe that the best approach to get back to exponential growth is to become the finest provider of services in the electronic security industry.”
