Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Supra up for sale- Should MLS Providers and Associations be worried?

supra_ibox 2

Maybe…

A recent Bloomberg story stated:

United Technologies Corp. has emerged as the frontrunner in the bidding for General Electric Co.’s fire alarm and surveillance systems unit, said a person familiar with the matter. ”

Many people know General Electric Security owns Supra.

What’s the fuss? Well, if you remember the “lockbox wars” heated up in the late 90s. This was due to Interlogix (the owner of Supra t the time) changing the business model from a turnkey/software license approach to a service/lease model. This created a nice recurring revenue model that was much more appealing from a revenue standpoint. The negative reaction from the MLS Providers/Associations came from this shift taking revenue from them and shifting it back to the company – and there was nothing they could do about it.

Not to say that anything like this would occur with this potential sale. But, as we are all too familiar with, ownership changes will have an impact. Since Supra still serves about 70% of the MLSs/Associations in the country, it can have a big vendor impact to them.

For further information about this possible deal check out this post on Security System News. The part about GE is toward the bottom.

  1. The Supa System and its infrared technology is so archaic only the real estate industry could embrace it and give it a 70% market share.

    I just received my new active key and feel like I took five steps backwards.

    If the spinoff disrupts their market share that will only be good for our industry.

  2. Pingback: Supra’s lock is picked. « Vendor Alley

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