Dahua to sell Lorex for around $72 million USD to a privately held cloud services company headquartered in Taiwan.
Hangzhou, China — Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. (Dahua Technology), a worldleading video centric smart IoT solution and service provider, has announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Lorex, a video security company headquartered in Canada with operations in North America and the U.K. to Skywatch a privately held cloud services company headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.
Commenting on the transaction, Fu Liquan, President and Chairman of Dahua Technology said, “Lorex has been a crown-jewel in Dahua’s global enterprise since we acquired it. However, it is in the best interest of our shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders to execute this transaction, which will create value in both the immediate-term for our company, and over the long-term for Lorex’s stakeholders. We wish the Lorex team every success in this next chapter of their journey.”
The transaction will enable Skywatch to accelerate its entrance into the North American market and other international markets for its growing cloud services business, while enabling Lorex to further grow its already robust video security business in its existing markets. The company does not expect to change its footprint in the markets in which it operates and aims to drive growth across those markets and potential new markets in the coming years
Commenting on the transaction, Skywatch founder Chairman Dr. Wei-Chao Chen said, “Over the course of more than 30 years, Lorex has established itself as one of the most trusted brands in video security in North America. We look forward to working with Lorex’s world-class team to build on its trusted brand, distributor relationships, and industry-leading products to fuel future company growth and to meet growing customer demand for smart video security and IoT solutions. This transaction not only adds a valuable and growing asset but also paves the way for our cutting-edge cloud services business to establish itself in the North American market. Together, we see an enormous opportunity to create exceptional value.”
About Skywatch
Skywatch is a leading VSaaS (Video Surveillance as a Service) and ACaaS (Access Control as a Service) developer and provider. Its in-house cloud technology enables seamless integration of network cameras, sensors, switches, and other IoT devices with cloud recording, smart notification, and hybrid Artificial Intelligence services. Users can connect and control through mobile Apps and receive AI reports from its analytics engine. Its shareholders include top electronics companies from the Asian Pacific region, and it has developed hundreds of thousands of paid service subscribers through direct and B2B channels.
The company was founded and is led by technology entrepreneur Dr. Wei-Chao Chen. Dr. Chen was the Chief AI Advisor at Inventec (2018-2020), an adjunct faculty at the National Taiwan University (2009-2018), a senior research scientist at Nokia Research Center at Palo Alto (2007-2009), and a 3D Graphics Architect in NVIDIA (2002-2006). Dr. Chen received his MS in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University (1996) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2002).
About Dahua Technology
Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. (Dahua Technology) is a world-leading video-centric smart IoT solution and service provider. With more than 22,000 employees and over 50% engaged in R&D, Dahua Technology has solutions, products, and services applied in 180 countries and regions. Investing around 10% of its annual sales revenue into R&D, the company continues to explore emerging opportunities based on video IoT technologies and has already established business in machine vision, video conferencing systems, professional drones, electronic license plates, RFID, robotics, etc. In addition, Dahua Technology has been ranked 2nd in the global CCTV & video surveillance equipment market according to an IHS report since 2014, and was ranked 2nd in “2020 a&s Security 50”. Committed to the mission of “Enabling a safer society and smarter living”, Dahua Technology offers end-to-end security solutions, systems, and services to create value for city operations, corporate management, and consumers. Visit www.dahuasecurity.com to learn more.
