AFA Protective Systems Inc. completed the acquisition of Ready Alarm Inc. in December 2012. Ready Alarm, with 45 years in business, had contracts representing more than $45,000 in recurring monthly revenue (RMR), consisting of commercial fire alarm monitoring, maintenance and inspection services in the New York City marketplace.

Though historically AFA has focused on organic growth, earlier in 2012 it acquired Sera Security Inc., Southhampton, Pa., (July 2012 SDM, page 17). “Sometimes you have a very good synergistic buy,” said Richard Kleinman, AFA’s president and chief operating officer. “You can’t say a business is worth X amount of dollars [based on revenues] because if you can merge it with something, that carries a premium.”

AFA also appointed two new members to its board of directors: Thomas Von Essen and David Kleinman. Von Essen gained prominence as New York City fire commissioner when he bravely led the department through the ordeal of 9/11. Kleinman was also made a vice president of the company and oversees most of the day-to-day branch operations and is a member of AFA’s legal department.