Axon and Safariland Group announced today that Axon has acquired Safariland's Vievu body-worn camera subsidiary. Axon and Safariland have also entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Safariland becoming the preferred holster supplier for Axon's TASER Conducted Electric Weapon.
“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Vievu, a company with an established track record in the law enforcement community that shares our mission of saving lives,” says Axon CEO and founder Rick Smith. “The Safariland Group brands are known for their excellence in quality and for putting customers first. This is a natural partnership between our companies.”
“We're incredibly proud of the team and technologies we've built at Vievu,” says Vievu General Manager Sean McCarthy. “As we've been scaling our hardware to meet customer needs, we realized that many of the software features our customers have been requesting already exist on the Axon network. Because Axon has made a significant investment in software R&D, this new partnership will give our customers access to these features sooner than it would take for us to build them.”
“Today's announcement is the beginning of a long-term partnership that strengthens both The Safariland Group and Axon and better positions both companies for future growth,” says The Safariland Group's CEO Warren Kanders. “We are proud of Vievu's accomplishments and we are confident that our camera customers are in good hands with Axon.”
Vievu provides body-worn cameras to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, including the New York City Police Department, the Miami-Dade Police Department, the Phoenix Police Department, the Oakland Police Department and the Aurora, CO Police Department. Axon will begin servicing those customers immediately and looks forward to partnering with them to better understand how Axon and Vievu can best serve their needs moving forward, Axon says.
The terms of the deal include cash, stock and stock earn out. The majority of Vievu's employees are based in Seattle and are expected to be integrated into Axon's Seattle office.
Safariland acquired Vievu in 2015.