 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Security |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder | Steve Jones Brian Cescolini |
| Defunct | 2017 |
| Fate | Merged with AlliedBarton |
| Successor | Allied Universal |
| Headquarters | Santa Ana, California, U.S. |
Universal Protection Service was a private security company in the United States. It was part of Santa Ana, California-based Universal Services of America, which merged in 2016 with fellow security service provider AlliedBarton to form Allied Universal. [1]
Universal Protection Service was founded in 1965. [2] It started as a janitorial company and expanded into security by 1969. After acquiring the security business, the company was divided into four different divisions, under parent Universal Services, to reflect the company's overall business. [3] [4] [ citation needed ]
In 2013, the Swiss investment firm Partners Group made an equity investment in the company. [5]
In November 2013, the company acquired Bannockburn, Illinois-based venue security company IPC International, at the time the company's largest acquisition. [6]
By 2015, the company was operating as a division of Universal Services of America. In February, Robert Stone, a former employee of Universal Protection Service filed an arbitration claim alleging that the company failed to pay overtime wages for all hours worked as well as minimum wage. Stone also asserted claims of additional wage violations including meal period and rest period violations, allegedly in violation of California and federal wage law. The company denied the allegations, but entered into a $30 million settlement to avoid the cost of litigation. The settlement was granted preliminary approval on November 22, 2017. [7] In July 2015, Universal Services of America received an ownership investment from investment firm Warburg Pincus, joining earlier owner investment firm Partners Group. [5] Also in July, parent Universal Services acquired Memphis, Tennessee-based security firm Guardsmark, and became the largest privately owned security contractor in the US. [2] [8] Guardsmark's founder, Ira A. Lipman, joined UPS's board as vice chairman. [2]
In 2016, Universal Services of America merged with fellow security services firm AlliedBarton to form Allied Universal. [1] In February 2017, the company officially began operations under its new name.
Universal Protection Service offered security services and was located in Santa Ana, California. It was a division of Universal Services of America, with three other divisions: Universal Building Maintenance (janitorial and maintenance), Universal Protection Security Systems (security system installation and management), and Universal Fire/Life Safety (fire safety planning and training). [4] Universal Services of America was owned by investment firms is owned Warburg Pincus and Partners Group. [2]
iconectiv supplies communications providers with network planning and management services. The company’s cloud-based information as a service network and operations management and numbering solutions span trusted communications, digital identity management and fraud prevention. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the Bell System, the company's name changed to Telcordia Technologies after a change of ownership in 1996. The business was acquired by Ericsson in 2012, then restructured and rebranded as iconectiv in 2013.
Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York City, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. As of October 2023 the firm had over $82 billion in assets under management and invests in a range of sectors including retail, industrial manufacturing, energy, financial services, health care, technology, media, and real estate. Warburg Pincus is a growth investor. Warburg Pincus has raised 21 private equity funds which have invested over $100 billion in over 1,000 companies in 40 countries.
Guardsmark was a major provider of security services in North America, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. Founded in 1963, Guardsmark was the fourth largest security company and the only major provider privately held by one family. The family-run company employed more than 18,900 people with reported revenues of more than $510,000,000.00 in 2005. It claimed to be one of the largest employers of former FBI agents in the United States as well as one of the most selective employers in its industry.
Allied Universal is an American private security and staffing company, based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and Irvine, California. Formed in 2016 by the merger of AlliedBarton and Universal Services of America, Allied Universal is the world's largest provider of private security guards. It is also the third largest United States–based employer globally with 800,000 employees.
Rural Metro Fire, founded in 1948, is an American private fire department that provides fire protection and emergency medical services to individual homeowners and commercial businesses in unincorporated locations throughout the United States, primarily under a subscription-based model. Municipalities and fire districts also contract Rural Metro to provide fire protection, prevention and emergency medical services.
EverBank is an American diversified financial services company providing banking and investment services, primarily via a direct bank. It is based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned by funds managed by Stone Point Capital, Warburg Pincus, Reverence Capital Partners, Sixth Street Partners, and Bayview Asset Management as well as TIAA. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States.
Located on the Mississippi River, the metropolitan area of Memphis is one of the largest in the Southeastern United States, ranking 42nd in the United States according to the 2010 census. The city has historically been one of the largest shipping hubs in the Mid-South, dating back to the Civil War, when the port was one of the largest on the Mississippi River and served as a shipping hub for the Confederacy.
A Place for Mom, founded in 2000, is a privately held, for-profit senior care referral service headquartered in New York, New York. The company provides personal and professional assistance to families in search of senior care options. Their service is free to families. They are paid by the senior living communities and homecare providers on its platform. A majority of the company is owned since August 2017 by equity capital firms General Atlantic and Silver Lake. Insight Partners now owns a minority stake as part of the company's $175M capital raise in January 2022. Previously they used former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden in their advertising.
Airtel Digital TV is an Indian subscription based satellite television provider owned by Bharti Telemedia Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. It launched DTH satellite television service in India on 9 October 2008.
Aramark is an American food service and facilities services provider to clients in areas including education, prisons, healthcare, business, and leisure. It operates in North America and an additional 14 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, the Republic of Ireland, and Spain.
Lionel I. Pincus was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, running it from 1966 to 2002, and later became the chairman emeritus of the company.
Guggenheim Partners, LLC is a global investment and advisory financial services firm that engages in investment banking, asset management, capital markets services, and insurance services.
Infoblox, is a privately held IT automation and security company based in California's Silicon Valley. The company focuses on managing and identifying devices connected to networks—specifically for the Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and IP address management. According to Gartner, Infoblox held a 49.9% market share of the $533 million enterprise DDI market in 2015. In June 2016, market research company IDC reported that Infoblox held a sizeable market share in DNS, DHCP, and IP address management.
Cyren Inc. was a cloud-based Internet security technology company that created security services and threat intelligence to businesses. It offered a range of services including web security, DNS security, anti-spam solutions, phishing detection, ransomware protection, URL filtering, malware detection, and botnet attack prevention. Cyren also provided endpoint protection for mobile devices and Internet of Things (IoT) gateways. Major clients included Microsoft, Google, Check Point, Dell, T-Mobile, and Intel. The company announced its closure in February 2023.
Robert S. Tucker is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is chairman and CEO of T&M USA, LLC, a security and investigative services company based in New York City. He is the grandson of American operatic tenor Richard Tucker.
Ira Ackerman Lipman was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of Guardsmark, a privately owned security company with a payroll of 17,000 employees and 130 offices in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and France. In 2015, he sold Guardsmark to Universal Protection Service, the largest private security company in the United States, and he served as its vice chairman until its 2016 merger with AlliedBarton. He was called "a pioneer in the private security guard business". His work was cited by the United States Department of Justice's Law Enforcement Assistance Administration and the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations. He supported the arts in Memphis, Tennessee, and Judeo-Christian interfaith dialogue in the United States.
AlliedBarton was a Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based security firm. The company was founded in 1957 as Allied Security, and in 2016 was merged with Santa Ana, California-based security and janitorial services company Universal Services of America to form Allied Universal.
Antero Resources Corporation is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The company's reserves are entirely in the Appalachian Basin and are extracted using hydraulic fracturing.
Kewsong Lee is a Korean-American businessman who is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of private equity firm The Carlyle Group.
John L. Vogelstein is an American business executive and financier. With Lionel Pincus, he co-founded the specialized financial services firm that became Warburg Pincus, and was its president and vice chairman from the late 1960s to 2002.