Security alarm set to ring for Ameritech. (court ruling could bar telephone company from continuing its security monitoring business)

Crain's Chicago Business, December, 1997 by Cahill, Joseph B.

Court order imperils move into monitoring business A federal Appeals Court in Washington, D.C., has entered an order raising the possibility that Ameritech Corp. will have to divest a substantial portion of its security monitoring business. The ultimate ruling is far from certain, but the final decision could derail a major diversification play for the telephone company.

Chicago-based Ameritech has spent more than $1 billion in a series of acquisitions that have made it the second-largest security company. In the buyout spree, Ameritech relied on an exemption from a provision in the telecommunications reform law barring Bells from the security business until 2001, and on a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling that the law allows Ameritech to buy more...

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