AFA Protective Systems Inc. completed the acquisition of Ready Alarm Inc. in December 2012. Ready Alarm, with 45 years in business, had contracts representing more than $45,000 in recurring monthly revenue (RMR), consisting of commercial fire alarm monitoring, maintenance and inspection services in the New York City marketplace.
Though historically AFA has focused on organic growth, earlier in 2012 it acquired Sera Security Inc., Southhampton, Pa., (July 2012 SDM, page 17). “Sometimes you have a very good synergistic buy,” said Richard Kleinman, AFA’s president and chief operating officer. “You can’t say a business is worth X amount of dollars [based on revenues] because if you can merge it with something, that carries a premium.”