Profile

IBM Israel, headquartered in Petah Tikva, established operations in Israel in 1949. The IBM Research Lab in Haifa (HRL), which opened in 1972, has conducted decades of research that have been vital to IBM's success.

 The IBM R&D Labs in Israel serves as an umbrella organization for the Haifa Research Lab (HRL), the IBM Israel Systems and Technology Group Lab (ILSTL), and the IBM Israel Software Lab (ILSL). Lab employees work at our locations across Israel, which include Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Rehovot, and Jerusalem.

R&D projects are being executed today in areas such as healthcare and life sciences, discovery, verification technologies, multimedia, active management, information retrieval, programming environments, business transformation, and optimization technologies.

Over 1000 individuals work at the IBM R&D Labs in Israel.

 Highlights

• 2000-IBM and El Al Airlines developed the ECO-2000 Optimized Crew Scheduling System.
• 2005-IBM and the Israel Chief Scientist signed an agreement of joint-support for Israeli companies in IBM’s field of activity. 
•  IBM Haifa Labs developed the Websphere Content Discovery Server, which provides a broad suite of content discovery solutions.
• 2007-An Israeli team of 30 engineers at IBM's R&D center in Haifa are instrumental in developing the Sony Playstation 3. 
•  2012 - A new mobile shopping app is being developed by researcher scientists at IBM’s lab in Haifa. When shoppers use their smart phone or tablet video camera to pan over products on the shelf, the application will instantly display recommendations and offers based on their specific preferences.
• IBM’s Special Global Technology Unit (GTU) contributes financially to Israeli technology companies and start-ups.

Investments

• 1998-IBM acquired the Israeli company Ubique for $15 million.
• 2005-IBM acquired Iphrase Technology.
• 2006-IBM acquired Unicorn Solutions for $7.5million.
• 2007-IBM acquired Watchfire and converts it to an additional R&D software center.
• 2008-IBM acquired XIV for $300 million.
• 2008-IBM acquired Diligent Technologies for $165 million.
• 2009-IBM acquired Guardium for $225 million.
• 2010-IBM acquired Storewize for $140 million.
• 2012 - IBM acquired WorkLight for $60MN, its 11th Israeli acquisition.