When Nice bought Nortek Control back in early October, it was the first time many of us had heard of the purchasing company. Founded in Italy in 1993 by the chairman, who is still the owner of the company, Nice got its beginnings in gate and door automation, but the company saw potential in the smart home market and began acquiring companies — mostly European, but some in North America — that would give them better positioning in the market.
Here is a rundown of some of the company’s North American acquisitions since 2016:
- Acquired Hy-Security Gate, Inc. in 2016 to strengthen its gate and barrier position in the U.S.
- Invested over $100 million (USD) in 2018 to expand and strengthen its position in the smart home market with the acquisition of Fibaro and Abode Systems Inc.
- Acquired Canadian garage door operator manufacturer Micanan Systems in 2019 to expand its commercial and industrial door solutions and expand residential door offerings to North America.
- Acquired Nortek Security & Control, LLC and all associated sub-brands on October 5, 2021, for $285 million (USD) to expand its portfolio, customer base, and footprint in North America.
“Now we are selling our products in more than 100 countries in the world,” says Luca Longhin, president of Nice North America. “We had 35 legal entities before the Nortek acquisition, with 2200 employees all over the world with more than 30 nationalities. Our presence was strong in Europe, Asia, Africa…even south America, but with the acquisition of Nortek, the center of the strategy is to be much more focused in North America. It is the most important acquisition in the history of the group.”
Nice and Nortek seem to be a good fit, with strong synergies between their product offerings. This acquisition expands the Nice portfolio across smart home, access control, security, door, gate, sunshade, power management, AV, AI, networking, and personal health.
“I think that the acquisition was incredibly interesting because we are talking about two complementary companies,” adds Longhin. “There’s basically no overlapping with what Nice North America and what Nortek have in terms of products and channels. Our aim is to create synergies and take opportunities both for North America, using all the experience and technology that Nortek is bringing, and, at the same time, for the rest of the countries in the world, where we can offer products that we were not able to help with until now.”
What that means in more practical terms is getting the relevant products in the Nice portfolio to work on the Nortek ecosystem. “The idea is to integrate and move from offering products to offering a solution for residential security and home and building automation,” adds Longhin, who points to Nice’s Sun Shading solutions as an early contender for Nortek integration.
For integrators, Longhin says Nice is very interested in working with Nortek’s dealer channel, saying it will be business as usual for now, but with a more promising future. “We want to add new features and new opportunities for dealers,” he says. “So, nothing’s going to change in the immediate future, but the new opportunities are coming very quickly.”
Of course, there will also be a host of opportunities to expand Nortek’s reach across the pond. “This is technology that is very interesting all over the world,” says Longhin. “There are a lot of countries that are now very focused on this kind of smart home solution, and we have more than 25 subsidiaries all over the world. We know the market, we know the channel, and we know the dealers in those countries. The idea is to boost all the international activities related to the Noretk’s products.”
For more information on all things Nice, visit https://www.niceforyou.com/na.
