| Industry | Security systems |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with ADT Security Services |
| Predecessor | Brink's Home Security (1983) |
| Founded | 2009 (as Broadview) |
| Defunct | September 1, 2010 |
| Services | Home security |
Broadview Security[1], formerly Brink's Home Security, was an American provider of home security services that was headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company had over 1.3 million customers in the U.S. and Canada.[2] It was spun off from The Brink's Company in 2008.
Broadview Security has since been acquired by Tyco International and has merged with ADT Security Services.
Broadview Security was first established in 1983 as Brink's Home Security, a subsidiary of The Brink's Company. The Brink's Company in all its forms has existed since 1859. Brink's Inc., Broadview's former sister company, is known for its armored trucks.
In 2008, the spin-off of Brink's Home Security Holdings, Inc. as a stand-alone publicly-traded company was official. The company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "CFL." As a condition of the spin-off, the company was required to change its brand, and in 2009, launched the new brand, Broadview Security.[3]
On May 12, 2010, Tyco International acquired Broadview in a transaction valued at $2.0 billion. As part of the merger, Broadview's services were transitioned to the company's ADT brand.[4][5]
Broadview's television commercials had raised concerns in the Alarm Monitoring industry, regarding what could be perceived as a return to unscrupulous advertising practices.[6] Many of Broadview's commercials depicted fearful women being victimized by white men, often in contemporary social situations, with alarm monitoring shown as a realistic defense to such behavior.
Critics, however, have pointed out a number of technical inaccuracies in the Broadview commercials, including circumstances which, if they'd occurred as depicted, would indeed not have sounded the alarm system being advertised—much less engendered the exaggerated, immediate response shown by the company.[7] And although crime rates in the United States have generally been dropping, criticism of the company's attempts to drive sales by instilling even greater fear within the most vulnerable members of society, women and children, had become frequent.[8] Unflattering parodies of Broadview's commercials, mocking the company's attempts to manipulate consumers,[9] can often be found online.[10][11]
Broadview had also been criticized for its usage of racial and gender stereotyping. In addition to the more obvious examples portrayed in Broadview's commercials (helpless women, victimized by men in even the most benign social situations), criticism had focused on Broadview's decision to use white men, exclusively, to portray criminals.[12][13]