Arlo shipped its first camera in December 2014, and three and a half years later it had sold more than 7.5 million smart devices. The cameras ran on batteries and Wi-Fi, so people could mount them on a fence or a porch with no cord. An app showed the video live. Arlo began as a product line inside Netgear, the router maker. When it filed to go public in 2018, Netgear was spinning it off as its own company.

A Brand Inside Netgear

Arlo was incorporated in January 2018 to separate from Netgear. Its line included Wi-Fi and LTE cameras, baby monitors and security lights. By April 2018 its platform had more than 1.9 million registered users in over 100 countries. The plan was to sell paid subscription services on top of the hardware, so each camera kept earning money long after the sale.

Sixteen Dollars and a Spinoff

Arlo priced its IPO at $16 a share in August 2018 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as ARLO. It sold about 10.2 million new shares, and Netgear kept a large majority stake. At the end of 2018 Netgear handed its remaining Arlo shares to its own stockholders, and Arlo stood alone. The company later moved its headquarters to Carlsbad, California. It is still public on the NYSE.

Cover: Banditti on the Lookout, from Fifteen etchings dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Hamilton Mortimer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for lookouts keeping watch (a security camera).