Italian Firm Buys Nortek's Broad Custom Channel Portfolio for $285M

Italian smart home company Nice acquired Nortek Security & Control from Melrose Industries in a deal valued at $285 million, said the buyer Tuesday. The purchase includes Nortek’s broad portfolio of brands for the custom installation market: 3Gig, Elan, Linear, MightyMule, Proficient, SpeakerCraft, Gefen, Xantech, Panamax, Furman, numera and IntelliVision. The move shores up Nice’s presence in North America, doubles its R&D capacity, and will accelerate development of platform-based integrated solutions, it said. Nice, whose North America brand portfolio includes Abode, Nice and HySecurity, now employs over 3,000 people across five continents, has 16 R&D centers and manufacturing facilities and has partners and customers in over 100 countries, said Nice Chairman Lauro Buoro. Business will be conducted as usual throughout 2022, the company said. Nice's North American organization will immediately begin collaborating with the Nortek Security & Control team on blending portfolios and operations “to emerge fully integrated in 2023.” It’s the second major acquisition of a major U.S. custom-channel business announced by a European firm recently. Assa Abloy agreed to buy Spectrum’s Kwikset, Baldwin, Weiser, Pfister and National Hardware brands last month for $4.3 billion (see 2109150056).