We have in two previous articles on mergers and acquisitions in the physical security manufacturing, industry, published in A&S; International, reviewed consolidation from 2000 to 2008 and benchmarked the value of companies purchased against high technology and growth. In the January issue we reviewed entrepreneurship in the IP Video sector analysing the distribution by company, age and country of origin. In this article we assess the impact of the credit crunch and global recession on the consolidation process and forecast merger and acquisition activity in 2009 through to 2015. Fig 1 shows that during the period 2000 to 2007 the value of deals increased threefold. In 2002 activity fell off coinciding with a short recession in the economy and in 2006 the figure is somewhat distorted by two previous years of frenzied activity by the major companies. Whilst 2008 saw a fall of 30% in the value of deals completed on the previous year the […]