Good News, Israel

Compliments of Anglo Saxon Raannana Real Estate

Quote for the Week

“This agreement constitutes international recognition of Israel´s status as a space power”

(Minister of Science and Technology, Prof Daniel Herschkowitz. [See final item below])

* Massive protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen are capturing the world’s headlines this week. Well, we had our own protest here in Israel; small-scale, low-key, non-violent, decidedly so, and not exactly ‘hold the front page’ stuff. Gas [petrol] prices have reached a record high in Israel – not GN at all – so members of the Chasdei Naomi organization, which provides food to the needy, decided to protest by replacing cars with horse-drawn carriages for last Tuesday’s delivery. Volunteers loaded the five carriages; off they went and delivered the goodies to families in need – at minimal cost, no pollution except the horses’ breath and the occasional you know what and without the need to stop to refuel. No one went without a meal, the kid’s were delighted with the horses, money was saved and the protest was made. Full marks for creativity to whoever came up with the idea.

* While the folk running the show at the TASE [the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange] down in Achad Ha’Am St were a little jittery because of the goings-on around us, with prices bobbing up and down, business generally had a good week. Here are some of the details:
o The world leader in specialty glass and ceramics, Corning Inc. which has a market cap of $34 billion has acquired Israeli wireless network solutions developer, MobileAccess Ltd. Sources say that the price tag is $150-200 million. This is their first acquisition of an Israeli company but if past experience is anything to go by, it won’t be the last. Think Microsoft and Cisco for starters.

o Property in the US is available at as close to bargain prices as it will get and the Azrieli Group has signed on to buy three office towers in Houston, Texas, for $176 million. The buildings, totaling 99,000 square meters (1.07 million square feet), are expected to provide rental income of $14 million in 2011, an 8% gross return on the investment

o “The Wall Street Journal”– no less – reports that the Acro Group has acquired 65% of the Setai Wall Street residential and office building for $80 million. Seeing that the building has 159 condominiums, priced at up to $5 million, offices and a spa, it sounds like a good deal to us.

* Into space for our next item – well almost, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has won a significant contract in the US. The company will supply a satellite communications system to support about 27,000 state lottery sites in Texas and Illinois. The value of the deal was not reported but market sources estimate it to be worth $40-50 million.

* There’s a little way to go yet but as of now the UEFA U21 football – the soccer kind not the gridiron game – tournament 2013 will be held in Israel. The voting by member countries went as follows: In a secret ballot, Israel garnered eight votes, while the Czech Republic attracted five and none of the delegates opted for Bulgaria, Wales or football world-power, England ? Israel ended up with an absolute majority and negated the need for a second round of voting. Interesting

* The Microsoft Israel R&D center plans to add 100 new employees to the 600 outstanding R&D people already working there. The new folk will be used mainly for cloud computing projects [Cloud computing we had to ask? It’s computing in which services and storage are provided over the ‘cloud’ which is another name for the internet].

* When are antiquities thieves, and there are plenty of them around, all of them specialists in their own way, GN? When they lead the legitimate authority to a great find, that’s when. And that’s what happened this week at Adullam Park. A beautiful Byzantine church, dating back to the sixth and seventh centuries CE with a magnificent mosaic floor containing geometric patterns, flora and fauna indigenous at the time, including a bear and a lion, has been unearthed. The thing about archaeology is the deeper you dig the more you find. So under the Church they discovered a Roman Public building and under that, tunnels containing coins, stone tools, lamps and clay vessels from the first and second century CE. Based on the finds, Israel Antiquities Authority excavators believe the tunnels were used by residents of the large Jewish community that existed at the site during the Bar Kochba Revolt which lasted from 132 to 135 CE to hide from the Romans. Not finished yet: Back to the 4th Century BCE and deeper still they’ve found the tomb of the Prophet Zachariah, or so they believe, and they’re still digging. Watch this space.

* The sky seems to be the limit for Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Fourth quarter revenue rose 17% to $318.5 million from the $272.1 million revenue for the corresponding quarter of 2009, beating the analysts’ consensus of $306 million. Perhaps the analysts should give up on Gil Schweid and his star studded group because they never get it right. But then again what do you do with an enterprise that consistently outperforms expectations. And just in case you were thinking well perhaps it’s all revenue and very little profit, net profit actually rose 25% to $137.4 million for the quarter. A tidy sum if we may add.

* We entertained some rather illustrious guests last week including German Chancellor Merkel and a large delegation of her country’s cabinet were here and held a joint sitting with Israel’s Knesset. Germany’s first Lady took the opportunity to remind us that the bond between the Federal Republic and Israel is unique. Two US presidential candidates in ex-Governor – Arkansas – Mike Huckabee [on his 13th visit] who followed fast on the heels of ex-Governor – Massachusetts – Mitt Romney were also with us. Both of these gentleman have a genuine and abiding friendship with the State of Israel and have displayed an understanding of our situation more profound than most.

* Telecommunications Company, Ceragon’s full-year revenue rose to a record $249.9 million from $184.2 million in 2009. Q4 2010 revenue rose 26% to $14 million more than for the corresponding quarter. 42% of the final quarter’s revenue of $67 million, and this is significant, came from the Asia-Pacific region. Israeli companies are definitely going east and which is a whole lot better than watching them going west.

* IT integrator Ness Technologies Ltd. posted 11.7% revenue growth in 2010, and expects more growth in 2011. Ness posted $571.8 million revenue last year and that included $157.4 million for the fourth quarter.

* Back into space for our last item. ISA and ESA celebrated a marriage of true minds when an Israeli – European agreement on space cooperation was signed this week at the Ilan Ramon Space Conference in Herzlia. The list of research items where Israel (ISA) and the 18 European countries represented by ESA will be putting their heads together includes; Micro- and nano-sized satellites, astrophysics and a whole host of others. Our doughty Minister of Science and Technology, who is also an ordained rabbi who should know a thing or two about space and a professor of mathematics, had this to say about the whole proceedings: this agreement “constitutes international recognition of Israel’s status as a space power” How true. We’re right up there with the best of them.