In January 2010, Tyco announced that it was acquiring Broadview Security (formerly called Brink’s Home Security) and was merging the company with its ADT Home Security division in a transaction valued at $2.0 billion. In 2008 Brink’s had spun out its home security business, which accounted for 15% of Brink’s revenue that year, into a separate publicly traded company.
The company rebranded as Broadview in 2009 with a massive advertising campaign. The ads were widely criticized as unscrupulous, fear-mongering, and exaggerating what home security systems were capable of doing.Unflattering parodies of Broadview’s TV commercials, mocking the company’s attempts to manipulate consumers were posted online and a Saturday Night Live Parody was created featuring Andy Samberg.
The acquisition of Broadview closed in mid-2010, and combined the #1 and #2 security companies in North America, adding Broadview’s 1.3 million customer accounts and $565 million in annual recurring revenue to ADT’s existing customer base of 7.4 million accounts and $3 billion in annual revenue.