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In 1999, Pinkerton was acquired by the
Swedish security company, Securitas AB, to form the
largest security company in the world.
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 The
History of Pinkerton |
| 'Pinkerton'
is perhaps the best known security company in the
United States and is now recognised all around the
world. The name came from the Scot, Allan Pinkerton,
who established the Pinkerton Detective Agency in
the 1850's in the United States. The Agency's logo
depicted an open eye with the words 'We Never Sleep'
beneath it, which over time gave rise to the now
well known expression 'private eye'. The eye remains
the logo of Pinkerton today. In more recent years,
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Pinkerton grew into one of the largest
security service companies in the US specialising in the
provision of manned guarding services.
The original Detective Agency's legacy,
however, still exists today in the form of Pinkerton
Consulting & Investigations (PC&I), the commercial
investigation and consultancy division of Pinkerton.
PC&I now has offices located throughout North and
South America, Europe and Asia.
PC&I nowadays provides security consulting
and investigation services to its clients worldwide
taking advantage of the Company's global reach whilst
also ensuring a local focus.
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The
History of Securitas |
Securitas was founded in 1934 in Helsinborg,
Sweden. Initially, Securitas only had operations in
Sweden. In 1989, the first steps were taken towards
the internationalisation of the company with the acquisition
of security companies in Norway, Denmark, Portugal and
Hungary. The company became publicly owned in 1991 and
is quoted on the Swedish Stock Exchange. This led to
further expansion in Spain, France, Germany, Austria
and Switzerland in 1992. Between 1993 and 1997 further
acquisitions then took place in Finland, Great Britain,
Poland, and Estonia.
Securitas moved into the North American
market with the acquisition of Pinkerton in 1999 followed
by Burns International in 2000.
The Company specialises in providing
cash-in-transit, security guarding and domestic alarm
services across Europe and North America. Today, the
Securitas group of companies has over 300 offices in
more than 30 countries worldwide with revenues of US$6
billion and more than 210,000 employees.
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