Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that SoftBank Group is considering acquiring Allied Universal, the largest US security services company, at a potential equity valuation of up to $18 billion; the firm carries about $12 billion of publicly traded debt, existing shareholders include Warburg Pincus and La Caisse, and talks are at an early stage. TMTPost, citing Reuters, says SoftBank wants robots to eventually take over part of security duties and replace some employees. Allied Universal's own disclosures cited by TMTPost show roughly 800,000 employees and about $23 billion in annual revenue across more than 100 countries, and the company has partnered with Knightscope since February 2022 to sell security robots with monitoring, charging and maintenance; SoftBank Robotics separately bought cleaning firm Green Clean Commercial in March and launched the Smart Building X platform.