AlliedBarton Security Services and Universal Services of America have agreed to merge.

The combined company will operate under the AlliedUniversal brand following the close of the transaction.

Steve Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Universal Services of America, will serve as the CEO of the combined company, and Bill Whitmore, CEO of AlliedBarton, will serve as its Chairman of the Board. 

Bob McCrie of the Security Letter and Professor of Security Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Security magazine: "Through bold, targeted acquisitions, Steve Jones has doubled the size of Universal in less than a year. This grand accretion presents huge challenges. It means first that UPS needs to figure out what kind of a business it will be. The customer base properly will be wondering what's in it for them. Unions will see bigness as an attraction for their own growth. Sales, marketing, and back office personnel know that redundancies are a matter of time for many of them. One possible result will be new opportunities for risk takers who don't make the cut."