Brivo and Eagle Eye Networks’ merger will create a unified cloud security platform, COO John Szczygiel says in an exclusive interview at Intersec Dubai.
The security industry bid farewell to 2025 with a piece of exceptionally big news when Brivo and Eagle Eye Networks announced their merger on Dec. 29. Just two weeks later at Intersec Dubai, we had the chance to talk with Brivo COO John Szczygiel about what’s ahead after the merger.
Asmag.com: Can you tell us a bit about the recently announced Brive-Eagle Eye merger?
John Szczygiel: Eagle Eye Networks will become part of Brivo. Eagle Eye might be kept as a brand name, but all Eagle Eye staff is now part of Brivo. The focus of the company will be on a truly unified security platform that brings access control, video intelligence, visitor management and intrusion into a single solution to centralize security across the enterprise. We’re working hard to create an integrated environment with open APIs to offer the best products on the market. The development of video-focused and access control-focused solutions will move closer together.
Asmag: When the announcement came in late December, my initial reaction was, “why now?” After years under the same ownership and similar go-to-market strategies, why is now the right time for the move?
John Szczygiel, COO, Brivo
John Szczygiel: Dean Drako, who has been owner of both companies since 2015, has been asked this question quite a few times so I’ll answer it the way he would answer it. Up until now, both companies needed to stand on their own and focus on their areas of expertise—Brivo on access control and Eagle Eye on video security. We wanted to ensure Brivo and Eagle Eye’s respective offerings are the best in the world. Merging them earlier would have shifted the focus away from developing Brivo and Eagle Eye’s respective products to their maximum potential.
Now, however, the whole industry is focusing on unified platforms bringing video security and access control together. This can be clearly seen at Intersec. Moreover, there are many trends that create synergies. Agentic AI, for example, naturally crosses over between access control and video security.
Brivo and Eagle Eye as one company also makes things easier for our almost 3,000 channel partners around the world, who will from now on deal with only one company, whether it’s about data security audits or technical support. All in all, the time was just right to add Eagle Eye to Brivo. The result will be more than the sum of its parts.
Asmag: Will there be any changes to your channel partner network? Will you keep them all on board?
John Szczygiel: We don’t intend to make any changes in this regard. Some of our partners only sell video security, others only sell access control, others offer both. They can all keep their focus. This is perfectly fine with us. We still feel like we've got a lot of market to penetrate. We don't have too much overlap among Brivo and Eagle Eye channel partners. We can keep things as they are and keep moving.
Asmag: Looking ahead, where do you see the most potential for “the new Brivo”? What will be your focus area? What markets and verticals will be most important?
John Szczygiel: The most important thing to consider is technology. We, just as everybody else in the security industry, need to move faster as advances in technology are accelerating. A lot is changing. There are many new technologies and adopting them is a must. Regarding regional markets, Brivo and Eagle Eye complement each other very well. Eagle Eye has been established in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific a bit longer, while Brivo is a bit stronger in North America. Our offerings also complement each other in many verticals, such as enterprise security, commercial real estate, multi-family residential real estate, quick-serve restaurants and businesses with large geographical distribution. The merger will unlock growth potentials in regions and verticals where only one of the two, either Brivo or Eagle Eye, has had a strong presence.
Asmag: What makes you most excited about this merger?
John Szczygiel: It’s a big advantage that the two companies already know each other very well. We first came together in 2015 so we can skip the awkward phase where people from two companies get to know each other after a merger. We have already had a combined sense of purpose and mission. We felt like at some point this was going to happen. This alone makes me excited. Our sales teams came together last week for our 2026 Sales Kick Off event, and there was immediately a sense that we must deliver for our customers together.
Asmag: Was there any resistance against the merger within the companies?
John Szczygiel: There was some concern, which is normal. Every company has a slightly different culture and different ways of doing things. I’ve been through several mergers in my career. There are always questions about details such as policies or the platforms we use to organize workflows and processes. Once we’re done with that, any concern about the merger will be gone, too. We have really good joint management; we have the same vision. It’s easy for people to come together around that.
Asmag: What can we expect from Brivo in the short term?
John Szczygiel: One of the things to look for from us is more new technology and greater innovation unlocked more quickly. This includes agentic AI, and harmonization of data from different sources. Video and access control are just two of many possible domains. It’s about putting data into context and making it actionable.
That's one of the reasons behind the Brivo Security Suite. Real-word systems include proprietary modules and modules from other vendors, for example for visitor management or alarm systems. With the Brivo Security Suite, the same layer of AI can be applied to data from all sub-systems. Harmonizing them really boosts operational efficiency.