The announcement last month that Canon will buy Axis Communications has created much comment about the significance of the deal and how it may change the competitive landscape; setting off a new wave of consolidation in the Security industry. To establish the importance of this deal you need to go back over at least the last 5 years and look at the trends that have taken place in acquisitions and mergers in the business. Memoori’s report focused on this business is a good starting point. In 2014 the value of deals declined by 14% following a three year trend from its peak in 2011. This was a moderate year for activity. We identified 26 deals compared with 34 in 2013, and 82 in 2011. Whilst the number of deals and total value of acquisitions has fallen the average value of a deal has increased from $120m in 2011 to $166 million in 2014. This arguably […]