Company profile: ICx Technologies

also listed a host of competitors it was up against, including large firms such as Britain’s BAE Systems, General Electric, Honeywell, L-3 Communications, Britain’s Smiths Group, and United Technologies, as well as mid-size and smaller firms such as Canberra, DRS Technologies, FLIR Systems, RAE Systems, and SAIC. Caution regarding its own financial future notwithstanding, ICx believes that the outlook for the homeland security market is strong. Spending in homeland security is expected to grow 21 percent annually from $55 billion in 2006 to $140 billion by 2011, ICx said.

ICx has about 820 employees. It is led by Hans Kobler, its CEO, who is also a founding partner in Digital Power Capital, LLC, an affiliate of Wexford Capital, LLC. Wexford Capital and its affiliates own about 76 percent of ICx. The company is divided into three segments: Detection; Surveillance; and Solutions. Detection, with $14.8 million in sales in the first quarter of 2007, is the largest segment. The detection business is focused on sensors and solutions in the chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological, and explosives (CBNRE) market. One of the company’s better known products is the Fido explosives detector (see more below), which is being used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at airport checkpoints to screen carry-on bags for traces of liquid explosives.

The next largest segment is Surveillance, which includes radar systems, thermal imaging cameras, and manned and unmanned towers. Surveillance had sales of $7.9 million in the first quarter of 2007, a $200,000 increase over the first quarter of 2006. In the Solutions segment, which did $4.2 million in sales in the first quarter of 2007, ICx focuses on control systems. The company has the Cameleon advanced camera control system and StarWatch software, which is for command and control.

The company has been shaped, and defined, through its seventeen acquisitions. It operates as a holding company, but ICx’s Michael Moore said the company has been working for the past year to create the ICx brand and take a more integrated approach in terms of its customer solutions. Creation of its three divisions has been part of the more integrated approach and so has the hiring of new executives and marketing staff.

Most of Icx’s sales, 63 percent, are direct, while 37 percent are through value added resellers and systems integrators.

ICx has not only strategically acquired small and innovative companies