Hedge Fund Monopolizes Fire Department Software - US Groyper News and World Report

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46263903

There's also a paywalled NY Times article.

There were a couple of small firms that wrote software for small fire departments, charged them $1000 a year. A hedge fund bought up all of them and jacked up the price.

This is typical enshittification behavior. Get a monopoly, then jack up prices or make things worse for captive customers.

It's also silly that they don't have the ability to fight back. A couple of the small fire departments should get together, hire a couple good programmers, and open source the software.

Hedge funds are a greedy bunch. That's terrible for the small fire departments. Many of them just rely on donations and volunteers. That's how it is where I live.

They could hire some programmers but they're not really tech people so they don't understand why that would be a good option. There are smaller companies out there that could help them but it all comes down to cost in the end.

There are no smaller companies. The hedge fund bought them all out so it would have a monopoly and could jack up prices. I.e., buy out a small vendor, cease operations, force fire departments to switch to the more expensive product.

Some fire department volunteers who also know how to write software would have to write new software and open source it.

This is just predatory behavior by hedge funds on display. Those price increases are extreme and unfair. I didn't read the NY Times article, but got this is from AI in the Brave Browser:

"Private equity firms have significantly influenced the fire department software market, leading to substantial cost increases and reduced competition for volunteer fire departments. ESO Solutions, a major provider of software for fire departments, is backed by the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, which manages over $100 billion in assets.

Vista Equity Partners acquired ESO in 2021, enabling a wave of acquisitions that consolidated the market. ESO has since acquired several key software platforms, including Emergency Reporting, FIREHOUSE Software, Station Check, eCore, and others, effectively dominating the sector.

This consolidation has led to sharp price hikes for essential software. For example, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department in Connecticut saw its annual software cost rise from $795 to over $5,000 after ESO acquired the platform it used, a 530% increase.
Similarly, the Mesilla Fire Department in New Mexico experienced a tripling of its software costs, from $4,000 to $12,000 annually.

These price increases are particularly burdensome for volunteer departments, which make up 85% of the approximately 30,000 fire departments in the U.S. and often operate on tight budgets funded by community events like karaoke nights and silent auctions.

Critics argue that private equity firms are prioritizing profit over affordability and public safety. ESO has shut down or phased out lower-cost platforms, forcing departments to migrate to more expensive alternatives. In some cases, departments were told they would not receive data migration support or were charged for access to their own historical records.

Fire chiefs have described the experience as abusive, with one comparing it to “covering a black eye” after being taken advantage of by a vendor. The lack of transparency and limited alternatives have left many departments with little leverage to negotiate or resist price increases.

The trend is not limited to software. The same pattern of investor-backed consolidation and regulatory lobbying is now affecting other public safety technologies, such as drones, where companies like Skydio and BRINC have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital and are pushing for regulations that eliminate competition from lower-cost providers like DJI.

This raises concerns about the long-term impact on emergency response capabilities, especially in rural areas where budget constraints are most severe".

If I had the money to spend, I'd hire a few software engineers, get some fire departments to help with the specifications, and open source the software.

Hopefully, someone will do just that and give fire departments a cheaper option. They shouldn't be forced into going with ESO. I'm just amazed that whatever government agency oversees the private equity firms allowed them to create a monopoly like this.