| ISRAELI FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS STRONG, GOVERNMENT POLICY TO CUSHION GLOBAL FINANCIAL SHOCKS (12/2008) |  |
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"The Bank of Israel will continue, similar to the trend of central banks around the world, an interest rate policy that supports growth and employment, while supporting financial stability, and without hurting the downward trend in inflation," Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said. The central bank expects inflation to return to an official annual inflation target of 1-3% by the middle of 2009.
Fischer noted that Israeli financial institutions were in better shape than those of other countries’ and would therefore not warrant the kind of intervention or higher state spending that would widen the budget deficit.
The economy is forecasted to grow approximately 4.5% in 2008 after four years of growth exceeding 5% per year. Though growth in 2009 is expected to be lower, the Bank of Israel said that growth in Israel is still forecast to be higher than in many other developed countries.
To cushion the Israeli economy from the shocks of the international credit crunch, the Ministry of Finance is set to implement an economic stimulus plan that would increase investment in projects related to infrastructure, energy, transportation, water, and tourism, boost employment, and help increase liquidity in the market. | |
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| MERRILL LYNCH CONFIDENT IN ISRAELI ECONOMY (12/2008) | |
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| International brokerage applies to join Israeli bourse as remote member | |
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In a clear vote of confidence for the Israeli economy, the international investment firm Merrill Lynch has applied for remote membership to the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) providing Merrill Lynch's clients with direct access to the bourse while increasing the exposure of Tel Aviv-listed companies to a broad spectrum of foreign investors.
"Merrill Lynch's decision to become a remote member of the TASE is a sign of confidence in the Israeli economy and deepens Merrill's trading platform on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange," said Yoram Inbar, Managing Director of EMEA Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, noting that the move strengthens Merrill Lynch's long term commitment to the State of Israel and its capital markets. | |
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| JOHNSON & JOHNSON ACQUIRES ISRAEL’S OMRIX FOR $438 MILLION (12/2008) | |
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Healthcare company Johnson & Johnson is buying Israel’s Omrix Biopharmaceuticals for $438 million in cash. The two companies have collaborated for the past five years. Omrix, established in 1995, developed and markets the unique surgical sealant, Quixil.
In describing the acquisition, Alex Gorsky, Company Group Chairman for Johnson & Johnson stated, "Our partnership with Omrix has already expanded our capacity to provide innovative, next generation products that raise the standard of surgical care." Under the terms of the agreement, Omrix, a biopharmaceutical company that develops and markets bio-surgical and immunotherapy products, would operate as a stand-alone entity and would be reporting through ETHICON, a Johnson & Johnson company and leading provider of suture, mesh, hemostats, and other products for surgical procedures. In 2006, Johnson & Johnson, a multinational pharmaceutical and health products company with 2007 revenues of $61 billion, purchased Israel's Colbar LifeScience, a biomaterial product company. | |
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| SOFTWARE AG TO EXPAND R&D IN ISRAEL (12/2008) | |
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Software AG, Germany’s second-largest software company, is looking to expand research and development in Israel and is in advanced negotiations to set up a new R&D center in Beer Sheva in cooperation with Ben Gurion University. The decision to establish a development center in southern Israel's Negev was reached during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Israel in March, when Software AG Chief Executive Karl-Heinz Streibich expressed the company’s continued interest in investing in Israeli research and development.
The R&D center would focus on the development of software and systems for Software AG clients globally. Israeli specialists have been instrumental in the development of Software AG products for over 30 years. The company, which has a market value of about $2 billion, has so far invested more than $100 million in Israeli acquisitions, including ApplinX in 2005, and SPL and Jacada in 2007. SPL has been Software AG‘s exclusive representative in Israel for the last 30 years. | |
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| ENDOCARE TO BUY ELRON'S GALIL MEDICAL (12/2008) | |
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Medical device maker Endocare is acquiring Israel’s privately held Galil Medical Ltd in an all-stock deal forming a company with a combined revenue of $55.6 million for the twelve months ended September 30, 2008. "As a combined company, Endocare and Galil will be better positioned to advance the acceptance and growth of cryoablation as an important treatment for cancerous and non-cancerous tumors including prostate cancer and kidney tumors," Martin Emerson, Galil Medical's president and chief executive said in a statement."
The transaction between the two medical device companies is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009. Endocare, which was founded in 1990, is an innovative medical device company focused on the development of minimally invasive technologies for tissue and tumor ablation. Galil Medical, which is majority-owned by Elron Electronics Industries, is a global medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets innovative products utilizing a proprietary cryoablation platform that incorporates powerful freezing technology and revolutionary 17-gauge cryoablation needle design. | |
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| AOL LATINO TRANSLATIONS COLLABORATES WITH BABYLON (12/2008) | |
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| Israel’s translation software developer, Babylon Ltd, has signed a collaboration agreement with the US Internet giant, AOL, whereby Babylon will provide AOL Latino with Web-based translation tools, allowing users to translate content from one language to another directly on the AOL Latino website.
The agreement enables users to translate content from English to Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and French and vice versa. In the United States, AOL Latino is one of the top 2 bilingual portals aimed at native Spanish speakers, with more than 2.1 million unique users.
Babylon, established in 1997, is an onscreen language translator. Babylon signed an official collaboration agreement with Google earlier this year, under which the two companies share revenue from search-based advertising.
AOL has been present in Israel since 1998, when it acquired instant messaging company, Mirabilis for $407 million. Other acquisitions of Israeli companies include BlogTV, an internet browser earlier this year, on-line advertising company Quigo and search engine company Yedda in 2007, and Relegence, an Israeli financial news and information search technology company in 2006.
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| ISRAEL’S FOOD PRODUCER OSEM TO BUY FOODTECH FOR $20 MILLION (12/2008) | |
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| Jerusalem-based food producer Osem said its subsidiary Tivall Min Hatsomeach Ltd. (Tivall) had agreed to acquire U.S. based FoodTech International, a producer of vegetarian food products. Under the agreement, Nestle which owns a 54 percent stake in Osem, would contribute $9.4 million for FoodTech’s intellectual property rights, while Tivall would pay $10.6 million for the company’s operations.
FoodTech markets frozen meat substitute products in North America under the Veggie Patch label. The acquisition is intended to facilitate further expansion of Osem's international operations in the North American market by leveraging FoodTech’s activity.
The acquisition follows Osem’s purchase of Tribe Mediterranean Food Company LLC, which makes and markets Middle Eastern salads in the North American market.
Osem, founded in 1942 as a marketing company, is one of the largest food corporations in Israel. Nestle currently owns 54% of Osem Foods.
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| ISRAELI HEALTHCARE SUPPLIER PERRIGO MAKES THIRD 2008 ACQUISITION (12/2008) | |
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| Buys Unico Holdings for $49 million | |
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| Israel’s Perrigo Company, a global healthcare supplier, announced that it has acquired Unico Holdings for approximately $49 million in cash. Privately held Unico is the leading manufacturer of store brand pediatric care, feminine care, adult hydration, and related products for retail customers in the United States.
The acquisition is expected to add nearly $50 million to the Perrigo’s annual sales.
Perrigo has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Israel, Mexico and the U.K., and has its US headquarter in Michigan. The company acquired JB Laboratories for $44 million in September 2008 and Mexican manufacturer, Laboratorios Diba, S.A, for $25 million in June of the same year. It also expanded its product line last March by partnering with Teva Pharmaceuticals to sell Cetirizine, an over-the-counter version of the allergy treatment Zyrtec-D. In September 2008, Perrigo acquired exclusive sales and distribution rights to the allergy drug Levocetrizine.
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| SINGAPORE-ISRAEL R&D FUND APPROVES 5 NEW PROJECTS (11/2008) | |
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| Total Investment to reach $6.1 Million | |
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The Singapore Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (SIIRD) recently agreed to invest approximately $2.5 million in five new joint venture projects between companies in each country. Including the investment by participating companies, the projects’ total investment will reach $6.1 million, the Foundation reported. The projects will involve 68 researchers from both countries with each project including both a company in Israel and Singapore. The projects include Israel’s Celeno Communications Ltd and Singapore’s Aztech Systems Pte, Israel's Outform and Singapore-based View Media Holdings Pte, Israel's Xorcom Ltd and Singapore’s Voiceroute Pte, Israel’s Micronet Ltd and Singapore's InfoWave, Israel's Green Vision and Singapore's SIF Technologies.
SIIRD is a cooperative venture between the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) of Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. It was established in 1997 to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D projects between companies and organizations from Israel and Singapore which have the potential to lead to successful commercialization. | |
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| VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN ISRAELI HIGH TECH COMPANIES BREAK NEW RECORD (11/2008) | |
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| 3RD quarter capital inflow reaches 8 year high | |
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| VC financing in high tech companies in the 3rd quarter of 2008 showed a remarkable 45% increase over the same period last year. Despite the global economic downturn, 124 Israeli high-tech companies raised $600 million, of which $206 million was from local investors, in the third quarter this year, an increase of 29% from the previous quarter.
According to the latest report by research firm Israel Venture Capital, VC investments during the first three quarters of 2008 reached $1.68 billion, up 34% from $1.25 billion for the same period in 2007. Despite an anticipated 4th quarter drop, 2008 will still be a record year for total VC investments.
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| MICROSOFT CHOOSES ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY FOR WINDOWS 7 (11/2008) | |
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| Dell and Intel are already using N-trig's DuoSenseTM technology | |
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N-trig 's DuoSenseTM technology – combining pen and zero-pressure touch in a single device –will be included in the suite of multi-touch solutions offered for Microsoft's new Windows 7 platform. Microsoft presented the technology at a product fair it recently organized to introduce future Microsoft applications. "N-trig's DuoSenseTM technology is key to enabling multi-touch experiences," said Gary Schare, Director of Hardware Ecosystem Product Management at Microsoft Corp.
DuoSenseTM
offers the abilities of zooming in and out, scrolling up and down, and rotating images without the use of a mouse and keyboard. The technology can be implemented in a broad range of products from small notebooks to large format LCDs and can support a variety of applications. Earlier this year, Dell Corp began deploying N-trig technology on its Latitude XT Tablet PC. Last August, Intel selected DuoSenseTM technology for integration in its new UrbanMax mobile computer. N-trig, headquartered in Kfar Saba and founded in 1999, is an Israeli R&D subsidiary of the US Corporation, N-trig. | |
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| STANLEY FISHER SAYS ISRAEL IS IN GOOD SHAPE ECONOMICALLY (11/2008) | |
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| "Foreign companies are not exiting the country despite the financial crisis". | |
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| Israel continues to be in solid economic shape, according to Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer. Fisher emphasized that foreign companies are not exiting the country due to the financial crisis. He said that “The government's fiscal policy has remained fairly stable and over the past six years, the results have been good.” He added that the Israeli banking system does not face the same banking challenges that confront the United States and other countries, partly thanks to tighter regulations.
Fisher indicated that while the growth rate for the 2nd half of 2008 will be lower than the first half, 2008’s growth will still be high. Fisher believes that Israel's 2009 growth rate will be higher than most other industrialized economies.
Other leading economists have also been encouraged by Israel’s policy: Deutsche Bank analyst, Dan Harverd, has indicated that the global financial sector crisis is causing the Israeli banking system model to be copied worldwide leading to new regulations and ownership organization in banks in varied locations.
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| ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES RANKED AMONG WORLD'S BEST (11/2008) | |
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| The 2008 London Times Higher Education Supplement has ranked Israel's Hebrew University among the world's top 100 institutions of higher learning. The Times report placed the Hebrew University 93rd in its list of 200 top Universities. This is a significant improvement for the university from 128th place a year earlier.
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology ranked 109th overall and tied for 25th place among the top 50 institutions of technology. The Technion was also ranked 31st in Natural Sciences (ahead of Johns Hopkins University, NYU and ranking German institutions). Tel Aviv University was listed 114th, an improvement from 151st place last year.
The selection parameters included rankings given by academics of other universities, the number of citations received, the number of academic reviews and the ratio of students to lecturers.
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| CNN BROADCAST HISTORICAL ELECTIONS MOMENTS USING ISRAELI START-UP TECHNOLOGY (11/2008) | |
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| When Wolf Blitzer, a reporter at CNN's news desk in New York, interviewed newly elected US President Barack Obama, he was using technology introduced by SportVu, an Israeli start-up. By means of holographic presentation, the CNN reporter was able to send 3-Dimensional, 360 degree footage of Obama from Chicago to CNN's Manhattan studio. Millions of viewers around the world were aware that Obama was still in Chicago, but SportVu's cameras and computers projected an impressive image of the next president seemingly seated alongside the CNN reporter. SportVu's non-invasive, real time, peripheral tracking system has been used to broadcast live sport events in Israel as well. SportVu graduated from the Iris Ventures technological incubator in Sde Boker in 2005. Iris Ventures, formerly “Am Shay”, supports entrepreneurs by turning their advanced technology based ideas into high value economic products. Since its inception, the incubator has established over 40 start-up companies. | |
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| PHIBRO ANIMAL HEALTH BUYS TEVA'S VETERINARY BUSINESS (11/2008) | |
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| Phibro Animal Health Corporation, a world leader in the medicated feed additives business, recently announced plans to purchase, at the beginning of 2009, Teva's veterinary business unit, Abic Biological Labs, for approximately $47 million. Phibro Animal Health Corporation currently operates in Israel through its subsidiary, Koffolk Ltd.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, recently listed as the 10th largest company on the NASDAQ 100-Index, is the world's leading generic pharmaceutical company and is ranked among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
Teva's veterinary business unit in Israel develops, manufactures and markets products for poultry and large farm animals, selling to the Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern European markets. Their manufacturing facility in Israel employs approximately 90 people.
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| ISRAEL AT THE FOREFRONT OF PATENTS AND INNOVATIONS (11/2008) | |
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| WIPO Report 2008: 1 patent out of a 100 in the world is Israeli | |
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| In the 2008 report of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on patent activity throughout the world, Israel placed 15th out of 138 nations in number of patents. In addition, in the 2008 WEF Competitiveness Report, Israel ranked 5th in utility patents, 3rd in the quality of scientific papers and 6th in overall innovations. The WEF report also placed Israel as 9th in the availability of scientists and engineers per capita. The US Patent Office granted 15,868 patents to Israel between 1977 and 2007, placing the country 14th in the world after the United States. | |
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| ORACLE'S NEW ACQUISITION INCLUDES ISRAEL BASED R&D CENTER (11/2008) | |
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| Primavera Software of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, one of the largest independent providers of collaborative project, resource and portfolio management software solutions, was acquired recently by Oracle Corporation. Financial details were not disclosed. Primavera has more than 76,000 customers around the world. Through this acquisition, Oracle gains control over Primavera's important R&D center in Jerusalem which develops software solutions for portfolio management. With this acquisition, Oracle now has two Israeli development centers. Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company, with $22.43 billion in revenues for fiscal 2008. | |
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| TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS TEAMS UP WITH JAPAN’S KOWA COMPANY (11/2008) | |
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| Yoshihiro Miwa: "Kowa and Teva are creating a unique business model and a robust base in Japan’s generic pharmaceutical market.” | |
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| Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Kowa Company of Japan announced the establishment of a generic pharmaceutical company in Japan. Teva-Kowa Pharma Co., Ltd. will seek to combine the marketing, research and development, manufacturing and distribution capabilities of each company to become a broad based supplier of high quality generic pharmaceutical products for the Japanese market and reach sales of $1 billion in 2015. Each company will have a 50% stake in Teva-Kowa Pharma which will become operational in 2009.
Japan is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, valued at approximately $80 billion. Kowa Company, established in 1894, is a multinational corporation with approximately 50 affiliated companies.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world and is the world’s leading generic pharmaceutical company.
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| TOWER SEMICONDUCTOR MERGES WITH JAZZ SEMICONDUTOR (09/2008) | |
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Tower Semiconductor, Ltd. an independent specialty chip maker, on September 21st announced its merger with Jazz Technologies, a leader in Analog-Intensive Mixed Signal (AIMS) foundry solutions. Both Jazz Technologies and its subsidiary, Jazz Semiconductor, Inc, will now become wholly owned subsidiaries of Tower Semiconductor. The merger creates the world's 3rd largest specialty chip company with combined revenues of approximately $440 million. Under the terms of the deal, Tower is buying all of the outstanding shares of Jazz at an equity value of approximately $40 million. The total value of the transaction, including net debt, is approximately $169 million.
Tower, founded in 1993 and listed on both the NASDAQ and the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange(TASE), will also be expanding its fab portfolio in Israel. Jazz has their headquarters and a fab in Newport Beach (California) as well as capacity agreements with various foundries in China. In total, the combined company offers capacity of approximately 750,000 8-inch wafer starts annually. The companies stress that the merger creates significant cross-selling opportunities from Tower to Jazz customers and from Jazz to Tower customers. | |
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| ISCAR MAKES HEADLINES AGAIN: ACQUIRES LARGE JAPANESE CORPORATION FOR $1 BILLION (09/2008) | |
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| Iscar Ltd, headquartered at Tefen Industrial Park, has purchased Japanese Tungaloy Corporation, a leader in the cutting-tools market, from Nomura Holdings Inc. for $1 billion. This is the largest takeover ever of a Japanese company by an Israeli entity. "It is an honor to partner with a company like this," noted Eitan Wertheimer, President and CEO of Iscar Ltd. Tungaloy, established in 1934, is considered the leading Japanese company in this industry, with over 2700 employees worldwide and estimated annual sales of $450 million, $300 million from Japan. Production and management of Tungaloy will remain in tact in Japan. The deal confirms Iscar's presence in the Far East, where it already maintains factories in South Korea and China. Iscar was founded in 1952 and 80% of the company was acquired by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Group for $4 billion in 2006, the largest corporate deal in Israel's history. Iscar reports an average of 15% annual growth and generates approximately $1 billion in exports per year. | |
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| BANK OF ISRAEL GOVERNOR FISCHER VOICES CONFIDENCE IN ISRAEL'S ECONOMIC SITUATION (09/2008) | |
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| Israel's economy expands 5.3% in the first half of 2008, following four consecutive years of annualized growth of 5% | |
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| "We are in very good shape," Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer, was quoted as saying to reporters. Despite the turmoil in the American and world financial markets, the BOI governor remains confident that the economic situation in Israel will remain strong. "The Bank of Israel's supervision of the local banking system is excellent," Fischer indicated, after meeting with the Finance Minister and senior officials from the treasury, central bank and Israel Securities Authority. The CEO's of Israel's four major banks assured Fisher that the Bank of Israel will sustain only minimal exposure to the crisis enveloping Wall Street. As an indication of the country's strength, Israel's trade deficit narrowed last month lead by exports of chemicals which rose at an annual rate of 83% to a total $1.38 billion. In addition, industrial exports grew by some 27% since the start of 2008 and Hi-tech exports, climbed at an annualized rate of 18.2% over the past three months. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel's business GDP grew by 4.9% on an annual basis in Q2. Overall, the economy's growth rate has reached 4.2%. In addition, the unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2008 stands at 5.9%, down from the first quarter’s 6.2%. This is the lowest rate in 20 years. | |
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| HERLEY INDUSTRIES ACQUIRES EYAL MICROWAVE (09/2008) | |
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| Together, they form the largest independent microwave company outside US | |
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| Herley Industries Inc. has acquired Eyal Microwave Industries (EMI), a privately held Israeli company, in an all cash transaction, estimated to be worth close to $20 million. EMI is a leading supplier of a broad range of innovative, high-reliability, RF, microwave and millimeter wave components and customized subsystems for the global defense industry. The acquisition will be through Herley's subsidiary in Israel, General Microwave Israel Corp. (GMIC). Myron Levy, Herley's chairman and CEO noted, "EMI is an excellent fit with Herley…. EMI has customers and programs that will further strengthen our already solid presence in the international marketplace.". According to Levy, the combined entity will have initial revenues in excess of $40 million per year. Privately-held EMI will become part of. GMIC. Herley is a leader in the design, development and manufacture of microwave technology solutions for the defense, aerospace and medical industries worldwide. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the company has eight manufacturing locations and approximately 935 employees. EMI situated on Kibbutz Eyal, was established in 1986 and currently employs 175 people. | |
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| NY MUTUALART.COM OPENS R&D CENTER IN ISRAEL (09/2008) | |
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| MutualArt.com Passes Member Milestone and Opens New R&D Center | |
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| New York based MutualArt.com, the website that introduced content aggregation and personalization to the art public, announced on August 27th the opening of its Research and Development Center in Tel Aviv to service its rapidly growing membership. MutualArt.com is one of the most comprehensive repositories for art information online and boasts partnerships with over 1,800 museums, galleries, and investors.
MutualArt.com's members are leading art collectors and donors to museums and cultural causes worldwide, as well as curators, gallerists, critics, scholars and thousands of people wishing to learn about art collecting and investing. MutualArt.com features a massive archive of over 150,000 art-related articles from the leading art publications and critics.
"…This lab of over 20 scientists, engineers, and developers will lead the drive to analyze our members' needs, and continue to introduce innovative new services and technical solutions to improve usability..." Moti Shniberg, founder and CEO of MutualArt.com
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| MONSANTO PURCHASES $18 MILLION STAKE IN EVOGENE (09/2008) | |
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| “We have been very impressed with Evogene’s discovery capabilities, particularly their computer-based, predictive biology efforts.” – Dr. Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s CTO | |
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| St. Louis, Missouri’s Monsanto Company has purchased an $18 million equity stake in Evogene and has agreed to purchase an additional $12 million in the future, subject to certain Evogene due diligence requirements. Monsanto and Evogene also concluded a five year R&D cooperation agreement which focuses on identifying key plant genes related to yield, environmental stress and fertilizer utilization. The accord seeks to enhance research efforts to both discover and deliver novel, yield-enhancing technologies at a time of increasing global demand for grain. Monsanto’s financial support helps insure that Evogene has the resources required to aggressively pursue its goals of developing improved plants for agriculture and novel feed stocks for biofuels.
Rehovot’s Evogene is a leading developer of improved plants for the agro-biotech and biofuel industries. The company’s proprietary product development platform combines state of the art computational gene discovery technologies, plant and field validation capabilities and unique selection systems.
Monsanto Company is one of the world’s premier providers of technology-based solutions and agricultural products for the improvement of farm productivity and food quality.
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| IDE TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPLY €100 MILLION DESALINATION PLANT TO AUSTRALIA (08/2008) | |
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| Kadima’s IDE Technologies, jointly owned (50:50) by The Israel Corporation Group subsidiary Israel Chemicals and the Delek Group, signed a contract to supply a desalination plant worth over a €100 million to a major industrial client in Australia. The client will use the desalinated water for its production processes. Slated for completion during 2010, the new plant will be based on reverse osmosis technology - a modern process technology used for desalinating water in a wide range of applications. The plant will provide 140,000 cubic meters/day of high quality desalinated process and drinking water, using innovative technologies implemented by IDE in its projects worldwide (including the world's largest and most cost effective SWRO desalination plant in Ashkelon, Israel). | |
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| ISRAEL'S OSEM TO BUY TRIBE MEDITERRANEAN FOR $57 MILLION (08/2008) | |
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| Osem Investments announced that its Tivall subsidiary has signed an agreement to acquire Massachusetts’ Tribe Mediterranean Foods Company for $57 million. Osem is 53.8% owned by Swiss food maker Nestle and is one of Israel's largest food producers and exporters. Tivall specializes in the development and production of vegetarian meat-substitute products, meals and snacks made from natural ingredients. The acquisition aims to develop the chilled salad market in North America. Tribe Mediterranean Foods, with sales of $20.6 million in 2007, makes chilled dips for the US, Canadian, and Mexican markets and has a 17% share of the US market.
Osem Investments of Petah Tikva, with 2007 revenues of $829 million, is the parent company of the Osem Group, Israel's leading manufacturer and marketer of over 1000 food items produced in nine production plants throughout the country.
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| ISRAEL’S SECOND QUARTER GDP RISES BY 4.2% IN ANNUAL TERMS (08/2008) | |
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| The Central Bureau of Statistics announced that Israel's Gross Domestic Product grew faster than expected in Q2/08, driven by thriving chemical and fertilizer sales. Annually, Israel's business GDP grew 4.9% in the Q2. Overall, the economy's growth rate has reached 4.2%, exceeding the median forecast of 4% from five economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The Bank of Israel forecast is that the annual growth rate will reach 4.2%.
This places Israel ahead of the world's developed economies, which are forecast to grow an average of 1.8% this year, according to the OECD.
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| FROST & SULLIVAN HONORS TRANSPHARMA MEDICAL FOR ITS INNOVATIVE VIADERM DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM (08/2008) | |
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| The 2008 Frost & Sullivan European Transdermal Drug Delivery Product Innovation Award was conferred on Israel-based TransPharma Medical in recognition of its innovative ViaDerm drug delivery system. The company's two flagship drug product development programs - ViaDerm hPTH (1-34) for the treatment of osteoporosis and ViaDerm-hGH for the treatment of human growth hormone deficiency are both in phase 2 of clinical development. The unique ViaDerm system solution allows for low-cost, patient-friendly transdermal delivery of a wide variety of drugs from a patch. The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation is presented to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within their industry. The recipient company has shown innovation by launching a broad line of emerging products and technologies. Transpharma Medical was also the recipient of the 2007 Red Herring 100 Europe award given to the top 100 private technology companies in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.
Established in 2000, TransPharma Medical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of drug products utilizing a proprietary active transdermal drug delivery technology. TransPharma develops multiple drug products through strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies and through independent product development.
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| GERMAN SEMICONDUCTOR SUPPLIER CARL ZEISS SMT ACQUIRES ISRAEL'S PIXER TECHNOLOGY (08/2008) | |
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| "We are delighted at this reinforcement of our company by Pixer Technology," Carl Zeiss, SMT CEO Hermann Gerlinger | |
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| Pixer Technology of Karmiel, Israel, is to be acquired by Germany’s Carl Zeiss SMT. The two companies signed an agreement to this effect on August 6. With this move, Carl Zeiss aims to further strengthen its position as a leading equipment provider for the semiconductor industry in the world market and expand its innovative product portfolio with the unique yield enhancement systems for photomasks developed at Pixer for semiconductor production. Pixer Technology will become part of the Semiconductor Metrology Systems (SMS) division. The transaction is scheduled to be finalized in Q3/08. Terms of the agreement have not been announced.
Carl Zeiss SMT, with 2007/2008 revenues of over EUR 1.45 billion, manufactures and develops a broad portfolio of products, services and application solutions and is part of a leading international group of companies in the optical and optoelectronic industry.
Pixer Technology, founded in 2003, manufactures semiconductor equipment specializing in photomask solutions.
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| SAP INTERNATIONAL TO EXPAND ACTIVITIES IN ISRAEL (08/2008) | |
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| “We see Israel as a very creative country with tremendous technological capabilities,”Leo Apotheker, CEO SAP International | |
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| On a visit to Israel last month , SAP International CEO, Leo Apotheker described the company’s plans to expand sales and services of SAP Israel and announced the establishment of a new R&D center at SAP Labs in Raanana. To start, activities at the Raanana facility will focus on identifying the productive areas in Israel which can contribute to the continued growth of SAP International. ”...then we will expand our workforce and strengthen our ties with Israeli academia,” said Mr. Apotheker
SAP, with over 51,000 employees, is the 3rd largest provider of business software worldwide. The R&D center in Raanana employs 850 people and an additional 70 work at the SAP facility in Carmiel.
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| KARDEN ISRAELI UNIT TO BUILD WATER AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN WEST AFRICA FOR $260 M (08/2008) | |
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| Tahal Group, the Israeli holding company for the infrastructure activities of Dutch Kardan NV, will conduct three water projects in the Southern Sahara in the Sahel region of West Africa worth approximately EUR 165 million (USD 260 million. The execution of the projects will take around 3 to 5 years. This is Tahal's second recent project in Africa. In February, it won a tender to design and build a water supply system for seven southern neighborhoods in the Angolan capital of Luanda. In May 2007, the company launched two agricultural water projects in Botswana. It is currently developing another $300 million agricultural project on the continent.. Approximately 90% of the activities of Tahal are directly related to water and sewage systems. | |
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| TOURISM TO ISRAEL GROWS 45% OVER PAST SIX MONTHS (08/2008) | |
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| According to the Ministry of Tourism, Israel hosted 1.5 million tourists in the first quarter of 2008 and is on course to reach its projected goal of 2.8 million visitors by the end of the year, an increase of nearly 50% over 2007. 240,000 tourists visited Israel in June 2008, an increase of one-third over June of last year. | |
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| BRITISH PM SAYS BILATERAL TRADE TO REACH £3 BILLION BY 2012 (08/2008) | |
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| Visiting Israel on July 20th British Prime Minister Gordon Brown emphasized the UK's long-term economic commitment to Israel and his target of boosting bilateral trade to £3 billion by 2012. Over the past decade UK-Israel bilateral trade has grown by 40% to more than £2.3b per year. The UK is Israel's third largest trading partners after the US and Germany.
Brown noted that with over 250 Israeli companies located in the UK and 47 Israeli companies listed on London stock exchanges, Israel was one of Britain's top business partners.
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| TWO ISRAELI COMPANIES CITED IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY COMPETITION (08/2008) | |
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| Israeli start-up, modu has been chosen by AlwaysOn as the Top Mobile Company of the AO Global 250, a competition held annually by Stanford University in California. In addition, eXelate, the creator of the world's first exchange for targeting data, was selected as one of the 250 AO Global Winners.
Inclusion in the AO Global 250 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities in the global technologies industry. modu and exelate were specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and other industry experts spanning the globe from over hundreds of companies, nominated by a panel of industry experts in the online technology, media, entertainment, mobile, enterprise and greentech sectors from around the world.
Modu - a tiny, sleek and sophisticated mobile phone, introduces the world’s lightest cellular handset, adaptable to different consumer electronics.
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| TEVA BUYS US BARR PHARMACEUTICALS FOR $7.5 BILLION (07/2008) | |
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| Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has acquired New Jersey-based generic drug maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, for $7.5 billion. Barr is the world’s 4th largest generic drug company. The combined company, employing 37,000 people and operating in more than 60 countries, will have more than 500 products on the market, and 200 new-drug applications pending with the Food and Drug Administration. The acquisition will expand Teva's presence in the U.S. and will significantly strengthen its position in key European markets, especially Germany, Croatia, Russia and Poland. Since the beginning of the year, Teva has purchased, in addition to Barr, CoGenesys, and Bentley Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, founded in Israel over 100 years ago, is among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and the largest producer of generic pharmaceuticals in the world. Barr Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, develops manufactures and markets contraceptive pills and other generic drugs. Combined, Barr and Teva had revenues of about $11.9 billion in 2007.
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| MICROSOFT MAKES EIGHTH ACQUISITION IN ISRAEL (07/2008) | |
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| Company buys Zoomix for $25-$35 million | |
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| Microsoft Corporation has acquired Zoomix Data, an Israeli start-up specializing in data quality software, for an estimated price of $25-$35 million.
Following the acquisition, Zoomix's development staff will join the Microsoft research and development team in Israel, and the Zoomix solutions will be added to those of Microsoft International’s SQL Server group. Zoomix's system uses guided self-learning technology to build knowledge on how to parse, match, classify and clean data and can apply what it has learned to every new piece of information fed into the system.
According to Moshe Lichtman, VP of Microsoft International and President of the company’s R&D operation in Israel, "Microsoft's additional investment in Israel… is very strategic for Microsoft International."
Microsoft Israel's R&D center is one of the corporation’s four regional development centers and currently employs over 500 people. The recently opened R&D campus in Herzliya. is expected to employ an addition 150 workers.
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| ORBOTECH ACQUIRES PHOTON DYNAMICS FOR $290 MILLION (07/2008) | |
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| Two flat panel display industry suppliers unite
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| In one of largest acquisitions ever made by an Israeli high tech company, Orbotech Ltd has purchased San Jose, California-based Photon Dynamics Inc, a leading provider of test and repair systems for the liquid crystal (LCD) flat panel display industry, for $290 million.
Jeffrey A. Hawthorne, President and Chief Executive Officer of Photon Dynamics, stated, "By teaming up with Orbotech, which is committed to investing in innovative technologies, we will be able to grow the combined business and improve its competitive positioning as we face a maturing industry."
This is Orbotech's third acquisition since May 2007, when it purchased New System Srl for $14.3 million and then, several months later, Danish Diagnostic Development for $39 million.
Orbotech, located in Yavne, designs, developments, manufactures, markets and services production solutions for specialized applications in the electronics industry. It posted revenues of $360 million in 2007.
Photon Dynamics, a manufacturer of test and repair equipment for display devices, posted 2007 revenues of $74 million.
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| MICROSOFT CEO INAUGURATES NEW R&D CENTER IN ISRAEL (06/2008) | |
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| Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer flew into Israel in May on a 3-hour blitz visit to inaugurate Microsoft's new research and development center in Herzliya The new R&D campus, with two buildings stretching over 13,000 square meters, will focus on developing technologies in a range of different fields, including telecom, security, PC health and more.
"Microsoft is Israeli almost as much as it is American," noted Ballmer at the ceremony, which was attended by President Shimon Peres and leading hi-tech representatives. "We intend to continue to invest in Israel."
In the last few years, Microsoft has acquired no less than five local startups, the last four of which have fully integrated their staffs and technologies into Microsoft. Whale Communications, purchased in May 2006, was followed by the acquisition of Gteko in November 2006 and Secure Dimensions in January 2007. Yadata was purchased in March of this year, followed a month later by Kidaro. Over the next year, Microsoft plans to add another 150 employees here, bringing the total number of R&D staff in Israel to 750 and making Microsoft Israel the company's 3rd largest center outside the US.
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| IBM CONTINUES 2008 BUYING STREAK OF ISRAELI STARTUPS (05/2008) | |
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| FilesX and Diligent Technologies are 2nd and 3rd purchases of the year | |
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| In an effort to shore up its data storage capabilities, and improve IT efficiency, IBM has added Israeli start-ups, FilesX ($70 million) and Diligent Technologies ($200 million) to its list of purchases since the start of 2008. These acquisitions follow IBM’s largest purchase in Israel to date-XIV, a Tel Aviv based storage technology company,
- at $300 million, in January.
FilesX, founded in 2000, is a data protection and recovery software company, whose patented technology helps IT staff restore data from virtually any type of failure and from nearly any point in time. FilesX will become part of the Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) family of products, IBM's suite of data protection and information infrastructure offerings.
Diligent was established in 2002 and its innovative technology in data de-duplication provides a single solution to support data protection, archive and data-retention applications while maintaining the integrity of the data.
IBM established its presence in Israel in 1949 and has over 2000 employees in various facilities throughout the country.
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| S&P LIFTS ISRAEL'S CREDIT RATING (12/2007) | |
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| Agency predicts 5.4% economic growth | |
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| The international credit rating agency, Standard & Poor's, yesterday upgraded Israel's credit rating and gave the economy a positive outlook, reflecting faith in Israel's economy and economic prognosis.
S&P is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluators, investment research and valuations.
S&P lifted Israel's long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating from A- to A,
with a stable outlook. Israel's long-term local currency rating was upgraded to AA from A+ and its short-term local currency rating from A-1 to A-1+. Short-term foreign currency rating remained the same at A-1.
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| SENIOR EXECUTIVES FROM BAXTER HEALTHCARE CORPORTION VISIT ISRAEL (11/2007) | |
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| Senior executives from the world's 3rd largest healthcare company explore new technological innovation and ways to expand cooperation with Israeli research centers. | |
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| Three senior executives from Baxter Corp, including Norbert Reidell, Chief Scientist for the company, will visit Israel next week in order to learn firsthand about new Israeli technological innovations and ways to expand cooperation between Israeli research centers and technology companies and Baxter Health Corp.
"Baxter’s mission is to translate discoveries in science and medicine into innovative therapies for patients around the world," Reidell explained. "Israel is home to many world-class research centers and technology companies and I hope that our visit will result in new partnerships to develop and commercialize innovative therapies."
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| BANK OF ISRAEL REPORT: FDI FROM JANUARY-OCTOBER EXCEEDS $8.1 BILLION (11/2007) | |
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| According to data published by the Bank of Israel, foreign direct investments in October amounted to $1.86 billion. Since the beginning of 2007, FDI in Israel exceeded $8.1 billion. | |
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| THE ECONOMIST OPTIMISTIC ABOUT ISRAEL'S GROWTH (11/2007) | |
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| The magazine's forecast is similar to Bank of Israel's estimation | |
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| In its latest quarterly report, The Economist increased Israel's growth rate forecast for 2008 to 4.5% due to a strong growth in exports and greater foreign investments. The forecast expects Israel's economic growth to remain healthy, with low inflation and a budget deficit targeted below 3% of the GDP.
The magazine's forecast is similar to estimated figures released by the Bank of Israel. The Bank of Israel predicted a growth rate of 5.2% for 2007 and a growth rate of above 4% for 2008. | |
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| SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. KOREA ACQURIES TRANSCHIP ISRAEL LTD FOR 70 MILLION (11/2007) | |
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| Company to be renamed Samsung Semiconductor Israel R&D Center Ltd | |
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| In its first acquisition in over a decade, Samsung Electronics has purchased TransChip Israel Ltd and has turned it into one of its research and development centers. As reported in the Korea Economic Daily newspaper, Samsung paid $70M for TransChip.
Lee Eun-Lee, Samsung spokeswoman, explained that Samsung bought Transchip "to enhance our competitiveness" in CMOS image sensors which are incorporated into semiconductors used in digital cameras and cameras in mobile phones. Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of computer memory chips. Samsung's last acquisition was in April 1997 when it paid $20M for the hardware systems business of the US entertainment software publisher 3Do Company.
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| AOL BUYS TWO ISRAELI COMPANIES IN ONE WEEK (11/2007) | |
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| Time Warner Inc invests millions for Quigo Technologies and Yedda | |
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| Time Warner Inc's AOL Internet division has signed an agreement for the acquisition of Israeli online advertising company, Quigo Technologies, for $363 million. The company makes two products for internet advertising: AdSonar & Feedpoint. Using Quigo's technology, advertisers can purchase ads on web sites based on specific pages, sections, topics or keywords. AOL has also purchased the Israeli start-up Yedda, for an undisclosed amount. Yedda is a semantic search engine that matches questions to other related questions and topics, while selecting the best available online users to answer the questions. AOL said Yedda will operate as a wholly owned unit of the company. “Incorporating Yedda’s unique technology into AOL enables us to bring together our traditional search resource and an entire community of people to help users quickly find answers to questions,” AOL President Ron Grant said. | |
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| PHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOTECHNOLOGY GIANT, MERCK, JOINS A JOINT R&D PROGRAM WITH ISRAEL (11/2007) | |
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| Company to join the Chief Scientist’s program for international cooperation between small Israeli and multinational companies | |
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| At a festive ceremony in Jerusalem, the Chief Scientist, Dr. Eli Opper and Merck CEO, Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley, announced a mutual cooperation agreement to support Israeli companies involved in the development of drugs and chemicals for the high tech and life sciences industries.
According to the agreement, Merck, will contribute to the costs incurred in R&D to those companies chosen to participate in the program.
"Israel has a reputation for good quality scientific research and in innovation and readiness, two areas that interest us. I look forward to finding new technologies, new products and new therapeutic approaches in Israel that we can develop together," Dr. Kley explained.
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| ISRAELI START-UP COMPANIES FEATURED AT DEUTSCHE TELEKOM INNOVATION DAY (11/2007) | |
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| German Telecommunications Company relies on innovation from Israeli “Silicon Wadi.” | |
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| Deutsche Telekom's Innovation Day in Berlin last month focused on Israel.
Israeli start-up companies presented their innovative solutions and joint projects to more than 400 participants, including 250 Deutsche Telekom executives.
Hamid Akhavan, CTO of Deutsch Telekom, emphasized the significant role that active, multi-faceted innovation management plays in enabling the company to provide Telekom customers with new solutions as quickly as possible. He referred to the close collaboration with numerous large and small Israeli companies. “Israel has earned its reputation as “Silicon Wadi’, due to its strong high-tech industry and its tremendous innovative power” Akhavan stressed.
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| ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTERS, SENIOR MANAGERS OF WATER COMPANIES AND APPROXIMATELY 1,500 BUSINESS VIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ATTENDING "WATEC ISRAEL 2007" (11/2007) | |
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| The Water Technologies and Environmental Control International Exhibition and Conference will be taking place in Tel-Aviv on October 30 – November 1 | |
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| WATEC will present Israeli water technologies in the field of water and environmental control and provide an opportunity for international companies to develop strategic business ties with Israeli companies. Delegations that include both government and industry representatives from Australia, Italy, Brazil, Holland, Taiwan, Mexico, China, The Czech Republic, Thailand and many more will be attending the event. Israel's record in water technology includes having the highest water recycling rate, creating the most cost-effective desalination technique and developing the most efficient precise irrigation method - Drip Irrigation. | |
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| INTRODUCING "ISRAEL NEWTECH – NOVEL EFFICIENT WATER TECHNOLOGIES" (11/2007) | |
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| Name and logo of Israel's National Program Promoting The Water Technologies Sector, as well as film showcasing the sector, to be officially launched on Oct. 30 at the int'l WATEC '07 event | |
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| The WATEC exhibition will present for the first time the Israeli government program aimed at globally promoting the Israeli water technologies industry. The program is led by the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor's Foreign Trade Administration and Investment promotion Center
The Ministry, along with the IEICI (The Israeli "Export Institute"), will also be unveiling a film highlighting the Israeli water tech sector's advantages.
Israel NEWTech's goals, as approved by the government last June, are doubling the exports of the Israeli water industry by 2010 and encouraging water tech FDI and R&D, through international cooperative initiatives.
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| EBAY OPENING ISRAELI DEVELOPMENT CENTER BASED ON ACQUISITION OF ISRAELI SHOPPING.COM (11/2007) | |
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| eBay is establishing a development center for technologies to be used in the sorting and cataloguing of auctioned items. Currently shopping.com Israel is responsible for developing and strengthening eBay's product catalogues which support the company's operations worldwide. Shopping.com, which is claimed to be the world's first price comparison website, was acquired in 2005 for $634 million by eBay, the leading on-line auction and shopping company with 214 million users worldwide. | |
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| SPANSION INCORPORATED ACQUIRING ISRAELI SAIFUN SEMICONDUCTORS FOR $368 MILLION (11/2007) | |
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| Saifun to be responsible for Spansion's technology licensing business for the next generation product roadmap | |
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| Spansion, a flash memory solutions provider with a market cap of $967 million, is acquiring Israeli Saifun, a developer of technology that increases storage capacity per cell in Flash memory with revenues in 2006 reaching $62.8 million. Bertrand Cambou, President and CEO of Spansion stated, “Throughout our long-term partnership with Saifun we have been impressed with the depth of technology expertise, the quality of people and the ingenuity of the Saifun organization and look forward to establishing a team in Israel.” Saifun's solutions allow semiconductor manufacturers to deliver high performance, reliable products at a lower cost per megabit, with greater storage capacity. | |
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| UK INTERNET BROKERAGE COMPANY, ICAP, ACQUIRING ISRAELI FINANCIAL SOFTWARE COMPANY, TRAIANA FOR $247 MILLION (11/2007) | |
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| Company's online services system considered benchmark in foreign currency trading | |
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| ICAP, the world's largest electronic interdealer broker with a market value of $7 billion, is acquiring Israeli financial software developer Traiana. Group Chief Executive of ICAP, Michael Spencer stated, " We are very pleased to have reached agreement to acquire Triana, the established market leader in the automation of post trade process in the OTC markets." Traiana, with an estimated revenue for 2007 at $15 million, develops multiparty foreign currency trading systems and post-trade processing systems for financial institutions such as banks, hedge funds and institutional investors dealing with large-scope international financial products. ICAP has an average daily transaction volume in excess of $1.5 trillion, more than 50% of which is electronic. | |
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| DEUTSCHE TELEKOM'S CHAIRMAN: "WE'RE LOOKING TO EXPAND OUR COLLABORATIONS WITH ISRAELI COMPANIES" (11/2007) | |
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Chairman of Deutsche Telekom in Israel to visit the company's new R&D center in Beersheva set up jointly with Ben Gurion University. | |
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Rene Obermann, chairmen of the German telecommunications corporation with sales of €63 billion in 2006, met with the Israeli Prime Minister and President, multiple Israeli companies to explore business opportunities and signed an R&D Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the Chief Scientist prior to the Israeli Technology Day in Germany. Obermann stated, "We're looking for companies where we can promote innovation by investing in them." To date, Deutche Telekom is already working with six Israeli companies on joint projects and has invested in a number of Israeli companies, including Jajah Inc., Flash Networks Ltd., InLive Interactive Ltd, Trivnet Ltd. and VocalTec Communications Ltd.
The visit preceeds The Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor's initiative: the upcoming Israeli Technology Day at Deutsche Telekom, taking place on Oct 29, in which Israeli companies will present their technology to Deutsche Telekom in efforts to develop business partnerships.
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| AT&T ACQUIRES ISRAELI INTERWISE FOR $121 MILLION (11/2007) | |
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| At&T intends to maintain company as its Israeli R&D center within AT&T Global Business Service | |
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| AT&T, the world's largest telecommunications services company, with revenue of $65 billion in 2006, has acquired Israeli Interwise, web-conferencing company which specializes in voice, web and video conferencing services over IP networks. AT&T group President Ronald E. Spears stated, "The addition Interwise's technology and expertise in conferencing to AT&T's global reach, networking and conferencing capabilities will broaden and enhance the range of solutions for our enterprise customers who are making the transition to IP networking." | |
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| ISRAELI RESEARCHERS DEVELOP UPGRADED "GOOGLE TRENDS" (11/2007) | |
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| Technology developed by Google's R&D center in Israel improves technology's ability to provide insights into broad search patterns | |
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| Google Israel was imperative in the development of Google Inc. new Google Trends version launched recently. Google Trends allows the user to compare the world's interest in the user's topics of interest. The new Israeli technology allows for updates on a daily basis. | |
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| JAPANESE VC COMPANY, CSK, INTENDS TO INVEST $100 MILLION IN ISRAEL (11/2007) | |
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| CSK Managing Partner: "Our investment fund . . . hopes to increase the synergy between Japanese and Israeli companies through joint investments in Israeli technology." | |
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| Japanese CSK, with $2.1 billion in revenue in 2006 and investments in both Japanese and foreign high-tech and life sciences companies, is investing $15 million in Israel in 2007 and $80 million over the next two years. Satoshi Konno, CSK Venture Capital Managing Partner stated, “The innovations emerging from Israel are extraordinary. The breakthrough technologies that come from Israel catch the attention of investors in general and in Japan in particular.” CSK's visit, which was organized by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor's commericial attache in Tokyo, included tours of 25 Israeli start-ups by senior partners. | |
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| GOLDMAN SACHS INVESTING $100 MILLION IN ISRAELI MOBILEYE (11/2007) | |
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| Mobileye was named by U.S. Red Herring magazine a Top 100 Innovator | |
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| Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm with $37.7 billion in net revenues, has acquired Israeli Mobileye, a developer of camera based systems for automative driver assistance and accident reduction. With an R&D center in Jerusalem, Mobileye developed the Advance Warning System (AWS), a consumer display system that provides lane departure warning, forward collision warning and headway monitoring and the EyeQ™ vision system-on-a-chip (SoC) which allows consolidation of multiple applications on a single platform. Studies in the United States and Europe have shown that providing an early warning in case of an imminent crash can dramatically reduce accidents and casualties. | |
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| ISRAELI WATER PURIFICATION COMPANY, BLUE-I, TO INSTALL ITS TECHNOLOGY IN COCA COLA'S FACILITIES AROUND THE WORLD (10/2007) | |
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| Coca Cola's drinks are dependent on the integration of water purification technolgies in its manufacturing. Blue-I technologies has developed electro-optic technology that remotely and continually monitors water and sends in real time through a mobile telephone link. | |
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| US RESEARCH COMPANY, CLEAN EDGE, LISTS ISRAELI AQWISE AMONG "10 TO WATCH" FIRMS (10/2007) | |
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| Israeli water purification company was chosen among leading companies, such as GE and Siemens | |
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| Clean Edge, a US research and publishing company that launched the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index® which is responsible for tracking US-listed clean-energy companies, recently published a list of the ten most promising companies in water technology, which included Israeli AqWise. AqWise specializing in the upgrading of water treatment plants through the patented Attached Growth Airlift Reactor process, a particularly economic method for biologically increasing water treatment capacity using biofilm carriers. | |
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| INTEL CAPITAL INVESTING $11 MILLION IN ISRAELI SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANY (10/2007) | |
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Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's investment arm is investing $11 million in Israeli Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd. | |
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| Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's investment arm, which managed $1.07 billion in venture capital in 2006, is investing $11 million in Israeli Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd., a developer of semiconductor metrology systems based on x-ray technology. Jordan Valley's technology enables accurate and precise measurements for various thin-film applications in semiconductor manufacturing. With 8 centers in the country, Intel has the greatest presence in the world in Israel, including Silicon Valley. | |
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| VC COMPANY, GREYLOCK INVESTING IN ISRAELI CLEANTECH (10/2007) | |
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| American Greylock Partners announced that it intends on making 3-4 investments in early-stage Israeli cleantech start-ups | |
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| American Greylock Partners, with $150 million under its management, announced that it intends on making three or four investments in early-stage Israeli cleantech start-ups. Greylock has been active in Israel since 2001 and has invested in 16 Israeli companies. In 2006, Greylock officially opened a fund dedicated solely to Israeli investments. | |
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| IVC RESEARCH CENTER: IN THE FIRST 3 QUARTERS OF 2007, ISRAELI HIGH-TECH COMPANIES RAISED $1.256 BILLION (10/2007) | |
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| Amount represents a 10% increase over the corresponding period in 2006 | |
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| In just the third quarter of 2007, there were 108 Israeli high-tech companies that raised $414 million from local and foreign venture investors, indicating a 9% increase over the parallel quarter in 2006. | |
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| THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL "GLOBAL FINANCE" NAMES STANLEY FISCHER AS ONE OF WORLD'S SEVEN LEADING BANKERS (10/2007) | |
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| Stanley Fischer received the highest grade of "A" | |
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| In its annual survey of central banker report cards, the international journal "Global Finance" listed Bank of Israel Governor Professor Stanley Fischer as one of the world's leading bankers. In the report, Professor Fischer was commended for maintaining low inflation, interest rate policy the economy stable despite external factors. | |
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| THE FINANCIAL TIMES STOCK EXCHANGE ADVANCES ISRAEL'S ECONOMIC STATUS TO "DEVELOPED" FROM "EMERGING MARKET" (10/2007) | |
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| FTSE new classification lists Israel as the first Middle East country in a group of 24 developed nations | |
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| The FTSE Policy Group announced that Israel has consistently been meeting all criteria in order to be listed as a developed market. Managing Director of FTSE's Europe, Middle East and Asia division, Imogen Dillon Hatcher stated, "Israel has a strong investment environment, which has made significant changes to its regulations, investment procedures and systems, enhancing international investor's access to its market."
FTSE, an independent company owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange, specializes in the creation and management of over 100,000 equity, bond and hedge fund indices.
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| ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT REPORT: ISRAEL MOVES UP 6 POSITIONS FOR BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT (10/2007) | |
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| Israel's country forecast is ranked as the 23rd most attractive country in the world for business over the next five years.
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The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Outlook report provides country forecast information and covers the world's 82 largest economies. The report considers 91 factors in 10 different categories, including political and macroeconomic environment, market opportunities, policy towards foreign investment, taxes, financing the labor market and infrastructures. Changes in Israel's tax environment and financing structure helped improve Israel's score. Jane Kinninmont, the EIU's Middle East economist stated that the positive change in Israel's business environment is a "significant improvement [and] is an achievement." Israel's country forecast is ranked as the 23rd most attractive country in the world for business over the next five years.
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| IBM GLOBAL LOCATION TRENDS 2006 REPORT FINDS THAT ISRAEL IS IN THE LEAD FOR ATTRACTING NEW R&D JOBS IN RELATION TO ITS POPULATIONS (10/2007) | |
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Israel, Singapore and Ireland have the highest amount of new R&D jobs in relation to their population in the world. | |
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| IBM Business Consulting Services - Plant Location International (IBM-PLI)'s annual study of countries receiving investment from multinational companies in the area of manufacturing, services and R&D reported that Israel, Singapore and Ireland have the highest amount of new R&D jobs in relation to their population in the world. Gene DePrez, Co-Global Leader, IBM PLI-Global Location Strategies service stated, "As global companies continue to seek ways to optimize their operating models, they are increasingly establishing individual business components in locations that offer the best quality match for a specific unit." | |
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| ISRAELI ECONOMY GREW BY 6.6% DURING FIRST HALF 2007 (08/2007) | |
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| GDP growth is above Bank of Israel's 2006 estimate of 5% | |
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| Israel's present growth rate is higher than in 2003-2006, and the highest since the 8.7% in 2000. The growth was driven by an 8.3% annualized increase in exports, 5.9% annualized rise in investment and 7.9% annualized escalation in business product. The Israeli economy has experienced five years of continuous growth, the longest period in the country's history. Since 2003, the Israeli economy has grown 21%. | |
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| ISRAELI WATER TECHNOLOGY EXPORTS INCREASE TO OVER $1 BILLION IN 2007 (08/2007) | |
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| Water technology exports to date rise by 21% over the whole of 2006 | |
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| The increase in exports is attributed to higher sales by both existing companies and newly launched products by start-ups. Israel's water technology sector is composed of 270 companies, including 60 start-ups and 8,000 employees with specialties in desalination, irrigation systems, purification technology and management of water sources.
The global water market is currently estimated at $410 billion and is expected to increase to $600 billion by 2015.
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| MOTOROLA BUILDING 4TH R&D CENTER IN ISRAEL FOR $70 MILLION (06/2007) | |
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| R&D center to initially employ 200 Israelis | |
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| Motorola, a leading multinational communications company with $41.2 billion in revenue in 2006, has announced that it will establish a multidisciplinary center in northern Israel for the development hardware, software, and mechanics for the computer and telecommunications industry. Motorola stated that it will consider expanding the center in the future and hiring an additional 300 employees. Motorola has been in Israel for over 40 years and to date has over 3,500 employees in the country making its Israeli facilities the company's largest development center worldwide, outside of the US. • Motorola-Israel produces 40% of Motorola's total industrial output and its sales account for $1 billion out of Motorola's annual $40 billion global sales. | |
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| 6TH ANNUAL BIOMED ISRAEL LARGEST ONE TO DATE (06/2007) | |
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| Convention attended by over 5,000 people in the field | |
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| The Biomed Conference, which was attended by many of the leading life science companies and figures in the field, focused on medical equipment, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and included the International Stem Cell Meeting.. Delegations from around the world attended the conference, including leading biomed companies, angels and VC companies. Central to the US delegation, which had nearly 40 representatives were senior officials from Pfizer – the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world headed by Senior VP Michael Berelowitz. The Korean delegation which included 20 companies, such as Biotronic, C-Tri, LG Life Science, SK Green Cross and Kolon, attended the conference in order to locate investment opportunities and potential partners. Additionally, a large Italian delegation, including representatives from approximately 40 companies, attended the conference and participated in a joint seminar on institutionalized medicine. There were also a number of delegations from China and France.
Peter Stern, Senior Editor for "Science" magazine, stated at the Biomed conference, "In Israel, I found that its scientific influence is five times larger than its population."
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| PFIZER VP: "WE FOUND ISRAEL TO BE THE IDEAL PLACE TO CONDUCT CLINICAL TRIALS OF THE HIGHEST STANDARD." (06/2007) | |
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| Pfizer delegation visited Israel to explore business opportunities in Israel | |
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| Michael Berelowitz, Senior VP of the global medical division at Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, which recently announced its strategic decision to enter the biotech market, visited Israel to attend the Biomed 2007 conference and met with biotech professionals and government representatives to investigate business prospects. Berelowitz stated, "Israel is like Silicon Valley, it has a lot of factors that make it attractive.. For many years, Israel has been at the forefront of scientific research in biotechnology. It has advanced technology alongside advanced healthcare. Israelis have the ability to adapt military inventions for civilian medical devices use at the highest level. The doctors know what they're doing, and they do it with amazing efficiency." | |
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| EMC CEO: "DON'T BE SURPRISED WHEN EMC ACQUIRES ANOTHER ISRAELI COMPANY." (06/2007) | |
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| "Israeli IT companies respond well to the needs and strategy of EMC." | |
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| Joe Tucci, President and CEO of data storage systems company, EMC, stated during the EMC World 2007 conference, "Israel is a technologically advanced country and innovation flows in its veins." To date EMC has invested approximately a quarter of a billion dollars in acquiring Israeli companies." In 2006, EMC acquired three Israeli companies within 2 months and based on those acquisitions established an R&D center in the country. | |
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| JOHNSON & JOHNSON INITIATING JOINT RESEARCH FUND WITH TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY (06/2007) | |
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| This fund follows J&J previous cooperative research with the Israeli Weizmann Institute | |
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| The Corporation Office of Science and Technology, of one of the world's largest manufacturers of health care products, Johnson and Johnson has set up a fund with Ramot, the university's technology transfer company, to finance early-stage projects.
In 2006, J&J acquired Israeli reconstructive medicine and tissue engineering company, Colbar, for $159 million and established a joint research fund at the Weizmann Institute's commercial arm, Yeda.
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| IBM TURNING NEWLY ACQUIRED ISRAELI R&D CENTER INTO A NEW IBM SOFTWARE LABORATORY (06/2007) | |
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| IBM's recent acquisition of a Massachusetts-based online risk management software company, Watchfire, provided it with an additional Israeli R&D center. The R&D center, previously owned by the acquired company, has 35 employees and will become an IBM Software lab in Israel. IBM has 30 years of R&D history in Israel and has over 2000 employees in the country. | |
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| TASE HAS QUARTER FOR IPO'S (06/2007) | |
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| 35 companies joined TASE in Q1 of 2007, compared to 37 for the whole of 2006 | |
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| The Initial Public Offerings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange were lead by British-Israel Investments Ltd, which raised $75 million, Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd, which raised $50 million and Ashdar Building Co. Ltd, which raised $45 million. The first quarter offerings also included 8 real estate and 7 new R&D companies. In Q1, 39 established companies issued bonds and/or convertible stocks for a total of $1.37 billion and there was an increase in bond issues by new companies, with 15 new companies raising $57.5 million. | |
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| STATE BANK OF INDIA OPENS ISRAELI BRANCH (06/2007) | |
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| Israeli branch to facilitate growing financial transactions between Israel and India | |
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| The State Bank of India, the country's largest bank has opened its first branch in Israel. Om Prakash Bhatt, the bank's chairman stated, "We're bullish about the Israeli business world and about Indian-Israeli relations." The Bank plans on becoming involved in the fields of telecommunications, high-tech, chemicals, textiles, agriculture, processed foods, health services and pharmaceutics. The State Bank of India now has 84 branches worldwide, with more than $130 billion worth of assets worth and more than 100 million clients. | |
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| INDIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY ACQUIRING 50% OF ISRAELI IRRIGATION COMPANY, NA'AN DAN (06/2007) | |
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| Jain Irrigation Chairman: "This is a historic deal " | |
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| Indian Jain Irrigation Systems, a 4,000 employee company with a market cap exceeding $65 million, is acquiring Israeli manufacturer and marketer of advanced irrigation technologies and drip irrigation, Na'an Dan, for $21.5 million. Chairman of Jain Irrigation, Mr. B. Hain stated, "Na'an Dan, . . . is one of the earliest pioneers of irrigation technology having global presence.. . . ."We will be able to leverage (Na'an Dan's) technology to improve productivity of Indian agriculture and use their access to global markets to increase exports from both countries " | |
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| ISRAELI WATER TECHNOLOGY COMPANY PROVIDING CHINA WITH ITS LARGEST DESALINATION FACILITY (06/2007) | |
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| Desalination facility is worth $119 million | |
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| The facility, which will be built by Israeli IDE, will provide 100,000 cubic meters of potable water a day. IDE has constructed 360 desalination facilities worldwide and built the world's largest plant in Israel, which annually produces 100 million cubic meters of potable water. | |
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| NATO FINANCES ISRAELI TECHNION INSTITUTE'S WATER TERRORISM RESEARCH (05/2007) | |
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| The project has a budget of €300,000 and is due to be completed at the end of 2008 | |
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| NATO is financing research at Israel's Institute of Technology in Haifa – the Technion – for protecting water supply systems against biological and chemical terrorism. The research consists of mathematical models for the placement of monitoring stations with technology that can identify and neutralize chemical and biological contaminants. | |
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| FINANCIAL TIMES REPORTS ON HOW "ISRAEL'S CUTTING EDGE WITH VCS" (04/2007) | |
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| FT: Israel's high-tech industry is growing up, confidently promoting itself to investors as an alternative to Silicon Valley rather than an appendix to the US market. | |
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| A Financial Times article, highlighting the Israeli VC atmosphere, details on Israel's "shift in focus to markets in Europe and Asia." The article refers to the "country's immigrant culture and its location, along with proven engineering prowess" which "give (Israel) an edge when doing business in Europe and Asia, providing investors with exposure that North American start-ups rarely provide."
In evaluating the VC market, the report refers to the record level of foreign investment in 2006, in which 57 companies were sold overseas for $9 billion and the high level and the first quarter of 2007.
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| INVESTMENT FIRM WILLIAM BLAIR & CO'S NUMBER TWO MAN VISITS ISRAEL TO SEEK STARTUPS (04/2007) | |
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| Corporate Finance Department Head: "Israel has become . . . an important market for investors, particularly in the technology sector" | |
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| Chicago-based investment firm, with approximately $41 billion assets under management, William Blair &Company, initiated a quarterly survey of Israel and listed 35 companies it has decided to monitor. During a visit to Israel Richard Kiphart, Corporate Finance Department head of William Blair & Company stated, "Israel has earned a reputation as a world leader in technology innovation . . . We therefore view technology as Israel's competitive differentiator. . . Israel is a hotbed for high-tech start-up companies." | |
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| INTERNATIONAL ABN AMRO BANK TO BEGIN OPERATIONS IN ISRAEL (02/2007) | |
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| One of the largest banks in Europe, the ABN AMRO Bank, with headquarters in Holland is entering the Israeli market and will carry out activities in the fields of trust funds, financial management and services. ABN AMRO Bank has more than 4,500 branches in 53 countries with total assets of EUR 987 billion and is active in personal, private, business & commercial and corporate & institutional banking. | |
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