The current logo, in use since 2006
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Private company | |
Industry | Burglary, Fire and Carbon Monoxide detection, Fire suppression, Security systems, Communication systems, Video surveillance, Access control, Radio frequency identification, Electronic article surveillance |
Founded | 1874 | (as American District Telegraph)
Headquarters | Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. |
Key people
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Tim Whall (President, Innovation & Product Development) |
Owner | Apollo Global Management |
Website | www.adt.com |
Tim Whall
(Chief Executive Officer)
Alan Ferber
(President, Residential Business Unit)
Luis Orbegoso
(President, Small Business Business Unit)
Shawn Lucht
(President, Customer Experience & Service Delivery)
ADT Security Services is an American corporation that provides residential and small business electronic security, fire protection and other related alarm monitoring services in 35 countries. The corporate head office is located in Boca Raton, Florida. In February 2016, the company was acquired by Apollo Global Management for $6.9 billion in a leveraged buyout.
In 1863, Edward A. Calahan invented a stock ticker and formed the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in 1867 to exploit the technology. Gold and Stock also developed a messenger system that sent instructions to and from the stock exchange floor. Three years later, the president of Gold and Stock Telegraph Company woke up to a burglar in his home, which inspired him to create a telegraph-based alert system. This system eventually connected 50 of his neighbors to a central station where all the alert boxes were monitored. There were many small telegraph delivery companies in the United States in the 19th century. In 1874, 57 district telegraph delivery companies affiliated and became "American District Telegraph". With the increase in telephone usage in the late 19th century, ADT's messenger business slowly declined in popularity. ADT tried branching out and developing their signaling business, while still maintaining their telegraph business as primary income source. ADT incorporated into Western Union in 1901 and separated its messenger business from its main signaling business at that time. In 1909, Western Union and ADT came under the control of American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T). ADT began to expand into new areas, such as fire alarms and security alarms between 1910 and 1930, but was kept separate from AT&T's Holmes alarm business. ADT became a publicly owned company in the 1960s.