- Axon Enterprise, maker of the Taser, says it is making a "more covert" weapon to protect executives in business environments. The new product follows the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s Brian Thompson last year. It’s one of several new revenue streams for the company.
The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson sent shockwaves through executive offices at a number of companies that continues to resonate today. That’s bringing a surge of new business to Axon Enterprise.
Axon, maker of the Taser, says it has received several inquiries since Thompson’s shooting in New York City. As a result, it is developing a “more covert” device that can be worn in business scenarios, compared to the larger size of the taser used by law-enforcement officials.
“Over the next year, you might start to hear more about certain CEOs being protected by Taser,” Josh Isner, president of Axon Enterprise, told Semafor.
Adding more corporate customers will give yet another boost to Axon. The company last week reported annual revenues have more than doubled since 2022 to $2.1 billion. The company has traditionally worked with police departments, but has recently been expanding its customer base to include the federal government as well as businesses.
This isn’t the first time the company has expanded its customer focus. In 2022, it said it would make Taser drones for schools following the Uvalde school shooting. Axon is also investing in AI real-time operations, drones, and robotics, it said on a recent earnings conference call.
While most companies have some sort of protective measures in place for executives, those have ramped up considerably since the fatal attack on Thompson last year.
“There’s a significant uptick in evaluations happening right now,” Glen Kucera, president of enhanced protection services at Allied Universal, which provides security for about 80% of Fortune 500 companies, told Fortune last month. “Boards, investors, and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that risk assessments be carried out.”
Companies are are already spending millions of dollars every year to protect prominent CEOs. Alphabet spends about $6.8 million per year to protect CEO Sundar Pichai. And Meta Platforms shelled out roughly $14 million to protect Mark Zuckerberg, according to public documents released last year.
