the interview Martin Gren on the Canon-Axis acquisition: ”Very sad but rational” Marin Gren, co-founder of Axis reveals his thoughts about selling the company to Canon. Selling Axis to Canon was the hardest decision Martin Gren has ever made. ”The emotional part of me said no, no, no. But when something makes sense, I find it very hard to reject it on an emotional ground. It was very tough”, he says. Detektor met up with the Axis founder to find out what he thinks will happen to Axis and what his future will hold. By Henrik Söderlund hear what they want – which has happened on a number of occasions over the years. The unique thing about Canon was that there was logic to it which I have never seen before.” Can you describe that logic? ”Canon is the world leader in cameras and dominates, not least when it comes to ordinary SLR cameras. Canon has also dominated within compact cameras but it is a market that is getting eradicated by smart phones. Today, the growth is located in the security camera sector and therefore Canon wants to be in that market. With Axis, Canon gets the finest brand in the industry. However, what they really are buying is a business model, our way of doing business. Canon has a business model suited for consumer cameras, but not for security cameras.” Martin Gren founded Axis Communications in 1984 together with Mikael Karlsson and Keith Bloodworth. Axis invented the world’s first IP-based network camera in 1996 and in 2000, the company became publicly listed. On February 10th 2015, a Canon 2.75 billion-dollar bid on Axis was announced – which was almost ten times more than the company value at the initial public offering. A press release at the end of the spring read that Canon had bought almost 85 per cent of the shares and one of the large owners who had sold was Martin Gren. What was your first reaction when you heard about Canon’s interest in Axis? ”My first spontaneous reaction was; oh well, another company that wants to buy us, and now I have to manage to say no again. Our policy is to always listen and You have said that accepting Canon’s bid was the hardest thing you have done in your entire life. Why? ”It is true. The rational part of me said it was very logical, but the emotional part of me said no, no, no. Should I stop owning Axis? That is not possible. But if I look at something that makes sense, I find it very hard to reject it on an emotional ground. It was a terrible conflict that I went through, but then I chose the logical alternative. The same thing happened later to the staff, first they feared the change but today I think almost everyone can see the logic in it.” How long did it take for you to decide? “It took about three months. We first heard about it at the very beginning of the autumn in 2014 and then it became a reality in December.” Security News Every Day – www. securityworldhotel.com 3 4 • detektor i n te r n at i on al