Category: International

ASSA ABLOY has signed an agreement to acquire August Home, a leading smart lock business in the US. “I am very pleased to welcome August into the ASSA ABLOY Group. August constitutes a strategic addition to the Group and reinforces our position in the residential smart door market,” says Johan Molin, President and CEO of ASSA ABLOY. “August Home strengthens our residential smart door strategy with complementary smart locks, expansion into video doorbells and comprehensive solutions for home delivery,” says Thanasis Molokotos, Executive Vice President of ASSA ABLOY and Head of the Americas Division. August was founded in 2013. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California and has approximately 90 employees. Sales for 2018 are expected to reach around USD 60 million (approx. SEK 500 million). The acquisition will be dilutive to EPS. The acquisition is conditional upon regulatory approval and is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2017.

HID FARGO Connect cuts the cord between printers and dedicated PCs for a new way to create and securely issue IDs. The cloud-based HID FARGO® Connect™ solution has won the 2017 Campus Safety Best Awards in the Access Control & Identity Management category. As the world’s first cloud-based card personalization and issuance solution, HID FARGO Connect untethers printers from dedicated computers to offer a new way to create, personalize and securely issue IDs and credentials. “HID FARGO Connect addresses a growing market demand to simplify the management and delivery of IDs, especially for high-volume issuance requirements in environments with large populations,” said Craig Sandness, Vice President and Managing Director of Secure Issuance with HID Global, “This recognition underscores yet another solution from HID Global that powers trusted identities through an innovative approach to card personalization.” HID FARGO Connect makes it possible to issue ID cards from anywhere and from any device via the web – all in a trusted environment that leverages the industry’s most secure cloud technologies with end-to-end encryption. Users can create new cards or issue replacements, encode data and manage print queues through a secure and trusted system.

Extreme Networks, Inc., has signed an asset purchase agreement with Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. to purchase the company’s switching, routing and analytics (SRA) data center business for substantially the same terms as the previously announced agreement between Extreme and Broadcom. The transaction is expected to close within 30 days and is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions. “We expect this agreement directly with Brocade to accelerate our ability to close our acquisition of the data center business,” said Ed Meyercord, President and CEO of Extreme Networks, “This is a very positive development for all stakeholders, but especially for customers, partners and employees of Brocade’s data center networking business. Given all of the work that has gone into our business integration planning and our proposed product roadmap, Extreme is now poised to bring this deal over the finish line.” The acquisition of Brocade’s data center networking business will strengthen Extreme’s position in the networking market and expands the company’s state-of-the-art portfolio of data center, core, campus and edge networking solutions. As part of the transaction, Extreme will acquire customers, personnel and technology assets from Brocade, further solidifying Extreme as a top solution provider for enterprises in its target verticals of education, hospitality, healthcare, retail, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and government. “We are pleased to move forward with an agreement to directly divest our data center networking business to Extreme,” said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade, “We believe this decision will position the business for continued success, and is in the best interests of our shareholders, customers, partners and employees aligned with the business. Extreme’s complementary portfolio of products, coupled with its planned continued investment into our roadmap and its commitment to continued support of our products, make it a great fit for our business and a positive outcome for our stakeholders.” Purchasing the data center networking asset directly from Brocade does not impact Extreme’s strategic partnership with Broadcom, which will continue uninterrupted. Extreme continues to anticipate the transaction will be accretive to cash flow and earnings for its fiscal year 2018, which began on July 1, and expects to generate over $230 million in annualized revenue from the acquired assets.

Top analyst firm confirms NICE a Leader in Biometric Authentication and Fraud Detection Market. NICE has been recognized by Opus Research as one of the top tier vendors in both authentication and fraud detection using voice biometrics. The company was noted for the breadth of its contact center solutions and the depth of its integration capabilities, as well as a consistently strong execution of its strategic vision. NICE stood out among a total of 19 companies evaluated in Opus Research’s 2017 Voice Biometrics Intelliview report. Its fraud prevention solutions were recognized for their robustness such as integration with rules-based analytics tools assessing massive amounts of data and metadata. NICE was also lauded for its success in building an impressive roster of corporate customers, and a correspondingly large database of voiceprints, and the range of NICE real time authentication solutions incorporating voice biometrics, including passive enrolment, was noted as among the broadest available. Opus Research further placed NICE among the top of its field for meeting service level agreements and commitments, as well as its deep integration capabilities, strong business relationships, and a proven ability to execute its strategy and vision. Ravin Sanjith, Program Director for Intelligent Authentication at Opus Research said, “In recent years, dramatic changes have taken place in both technology capabilities and market dynamics for voice biometrics solution providers. NICE’s leadership in the voice biometrics market reflects the company’s success in building an impressive roster of corporate customers and a correspondingly large database of voice prints. NICE has been a pioneer in the market, delivering on a range of unique, fully integrated voice biometrics, analytics and fraud solutions, streamlining all authentication-related processes in one product; with the latest innovation being first to market with passive enrolment for self-service channels.” Miki Migdal, President of the NICE Enterprise Product group said, “NICE is proud to be an industry leader in voice biometrics, which includes rapid and transparent multi-channel authentication using a single voiceprint across channels, and a unique historical passive enrolment solution, neither of which requires complex integrations or prolonged implementation processes. For our contact center clients, the result is a reinvention of customer experience, with unprecedented enrolment rates and improved satisfaction, as well as cost savings from day one and a quicker ROI.” The Voice Biometrics Intelliview report, subtitled ‘Solutions to Optichannel Challenges,’ provides enterprise executives competitive context for 19 firms offering authentication solutions that include voice biometrics. The report is part of Opus Research’s mission to provide critical insight and analysis of enterprise implementations of software and services that support multimodal customer care and enterprise mobility strategies.

Johnson Controls has completed the previously announced sale of its Scott Safety business to 3M for approximately $2.0 billion. Scott Safety is a leader in high performance respiratory protection, gas and flame detection, thermal imaging and other critical products, and is expected to generate sales of approximately $575 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $160 million in fiscal 2017. Net cash proceeds from the transaction were $1.9 billion, and will be used to repay a portion of Tyco International Holding Sarl’s $4.0 billion of merger related debt. For fiscal 2018, dilution related to the sale of Scott Safety is expected to be fully offset by lower net financing charges, a lower effective tax rate resulting from the transaction, as well as the benefit of share repurchases completed in fiscal 2017.

Oncam, the leading provider of 360-degree video capture and business intelligence technology has been honored with two awards as part of Retail Risks’ Fraud Awards 2017 program. Oncam, alongside partner Video Analysis Solutions (VAS), was named the winner of the Most Innovative In-store Solution for its Live Customer Occupancy Watch platform and received a ‘highly commended’ recognition in the category of Most Innovative In-store Surveillance for its one box video surveillance solution. Each year, the Retail Fraud Awards highlights advanced technologies, programs, teams and services designed to reduce retail fraud and enhance loss prevention efforts. Submissions are judged by leading retailers across the globe, including representatives from Amazon, Adidas, JD Sports Fashion, Cotton On Group, McDonald’s and more. Oncam and VAS were awarded for their collaborative effort to provide a holistic approach to customer-based analytics using Oncam’s award-winning, 360-degree surveillance solutions and VAS analytics software. The Live Customer Occupancy Watch platform uses captured video to determine customer conversion rates, high-traffic areas, customer-to-employee ratio information that can be used to boost customer service, and much more. The result is a solution that utilizes IP surveillance, along with key business intelligence capabilities that many retailers demand in an effort to deliver higher levels of customer service, operational efficiency and the protection of critical assets within a store. “Partnership is the key to our success and this award demonstrates how our focus on understanding specific retail requirements delivers real-world results,” said Scott Brothers, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Oncam, “We continually align ourselves with key stakeholders both on the loss prevention and retail side to understand their operation and needs. The collaboration between Oncam and VAS has grown at an ever-increasing rate to ensure we are aligned in how we support the retail community, both technically and culturally. ”

To continue providing the expected, products and services that we expect, businesses handle increasingly large amounts of data. The security of this information is a major concern to consumers and companies alike fuelled by a number of high-profile cyberattacks. The havoc caused by such attacks runs from celebrities embarrassed by careless photos, to the loss of medical records, to ransom threats amounting to millions that have hit even the most powerful corporations. Where such data contains personal, financial or medical information, companies have both a moral and legal obligation to keep it safe from cybercriminals. That’s where International Standards like the ISO/IEC 27000 family come in, helping organizations manage the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to them by third parties. ISO/IEC 27001 is the best-known standard in the family providing requirements for an information security management system (ISMS). It’s an International Standard to which an organization can be certified, although certification is optional. For the person charged with auditing a particular company it can be a complex process. Likewise, getting ready for a smooth audit requires preparation and attention to detail. That’s precisely why ISO/IEC 27007 Information technology – Security techniques – Guidelines for information security management systems auditing exists. It helps both parties thoroughly prepare by providing clear guidance. First published in 2011, ISO/IEC 27007 has now been updated to align it to ISO/IEC 27001:2013. It provides guidance on the management of an information security management system (ISMS) audit programme, the conduct of internal and external ISMS audits in accordance with ISO/IEC 27001, and the competence and evaluation of ISMS auditors. Additionally, it provides extensive guidance for auditing all requirements stated in ISO/IEC 27001. It’s intended to be used in conjunction with the guidance contained in ISO 19011:2011, and follows the same structure as that International Standard. ISO/IEC 27007 bring benefits to any type of business and is designed to be applicable for all users, including small and medium sized organizations.