The ratings on Lawrence, Kan.-based Protection One Alarm Monitoring Inc. reflect the company's modest presence in the highly competitive U.S. security alarm industry, declining revenues, and leveraged financial profile. These partly are offset by a largely recurring revenue base and the expectation for continued positive free operating cash flow generation. With annual revenues of approximately $265 million, Protection One is a second-tier provider of property monitoring services, providing sales, installation, and maintenance of security alarm systems to approximately 1 million residential and commercial customers. Protection One had approximately $360 million in operating lease-adjusted debt as of June 2005. The company's recent shift to an internal sales model from a dealer-generated account program follows several years of aggressive growth at the
