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NEWSWIRE
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Tyco buys retail-focused analytics provider |
By Rhianna Daniels - 07.22.2008 
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PEMBROKE, Bermuda--Tyco International last week acquired the assets of retail-focused analytics provider IntelliVid, which will be integrated into its American Dynamics portfolio of video security technologies to bring increased capabilities to its customers globally.
The acquired assets include IntelliVid's complete line of Video Investigator solutions, point-of-sale accelerators and computer aided tracking software. Chuck Hutzler, vice president of research and development for American Dynamics, said the solutions will enable recorded video to be used for theft prevention and business intelligence solutions.
"We certainly view video analytics as a key enabling technology in the IP video space," he said. "It is a key growth area for us and for the entire market."
Hutzler said Tyco looked as the possibilities to develop its own analytics package in house, but ultimately "it became very obvious a marriage like this" would benefit both companies in the long term.
"We feel from an American Dynamics perspective that we have captured a tremendous technology opportunity when integrated in with other products from the American Dynamics portfolio," he said. "We are in a unique position to being capabilities to our customers that no one is as well positioned to do. We bring a lot of technology, but it is the integration of that technology into useful information that will help our customers solve business problems."
Since 2003, privately-held IntelliVid has provided solutions strictly to retail customers and has focused on marketing its analytics package as a loss prevention tool coupled with business applications that enable the product to be used for customer safety, compliance and marketing purposes.
In the traditional security space, analytics are used to identify negative behavior, such as a person loitering in one space or leaving a bag in an airport, said Patrick Sobalvarro, president and CEO of Intellivid, who will stay on board with Tyco along with 17 other employees. But some behaviors, such as a customer lingering near an end-cap display, are positive indicators from a marketing perspective and analytics can be used to identify these behaviors.
Sobalvarro said Tyco is one of the "most important players" in the market and its global reach is a "really great sweetener" to the deal.
"We had no ability to go worldwide so we were focused on the domestic United States," he said. "Tyco has customers and channel partners all over the world and is a leader in other areas such as gaming and transportation."
Tyco plans to move into other vertical markets, including casinos, with the Intellivid product suite. Sobalvarro said gaming can enhance customer service by using analytics to identify high-end players, and airports can leverage the tool to make sure "traffic is moving quickly and effectively."
Hutzler said it will be "business as usual" at Intellivid, but there are plans to merge the brand into the Tyco portfolio in the future.
"We don't want to interfere with what Intellivid is doing or what it plans to do in the months and years ahead," he said. "But American Dynamics is a strong brand in the market and we want to bring a seamless message out to our customers."
Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced.
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