Straight From The Jerusalem Boardroom #118, Oct. 5, 2007
1. AT&T’s first Israeli acquisition – InterWise for $121MN in cash (The Marker, Oct. 2, 2007).
2. ORACLE’S LARRY ALLISON: Oracles persists in annual R&D investments in Israel. Israel’s economic climate has improved in recent years due to qualitative man power, accelerated entrepreneurship, declining taxes and more simplified regulations (The Marker, Aug. 13).
3. GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF ISRAELI START UPS. IBM study determines that Israel, Singapore and Ireland lead the world in the number of R&D positions per capita (Globes, Sept. 20). Investors are willing to assume higher risk in early stage investments in Israel’s high tech. 46% of high tech investments in Israel, during the first half of 2007, directed at first round of private placement, which is 35% more than the second half of 2006 and twice as high as the first half of 2006 (Globes, Oct. 3).
4. BANK OF AMERICA has acquired stock of Israel’s Nice for $160MN with an option of $185MN (Globes, Sept. 26). $300MN raised by Israel’s Pitango Venture Capital, mostly from US, Israeli, European and Far East institutional investors (Globes, Sept. 17). EMC – the global data storage giant – has acquired Israel’s Illuminator for $10MN (Globes, Aug. 28).
5. GOLDMAN SACKS and ENGLAND’s HEDGE FUND, RAB co-led a $40MN investment in Israel’s Athlone Global Security (Globes, Aug. 31). $30MN raised by Israel’s Luz solar energy (Globes, Sept. 7). BENCHMARK CAPTIAL, MOTOROLA VENTURES, AZURE CAPITAL, BROADCOM AND SIEMENS participated in a $12MN 5th round by Isrel’s BroadLight (Globes, Sept. 12). 2PARTECH INTERNATIONAL led a $12MN 1st round of private placement in Israel’s PowerID, joined by APEX PARTNERS (Globes, Sept. 5). BENCHAMARK and BLUE RUN VENTURES co-led a $7.5MN 2nd round by Israel’s Vollee (Globes, Sept. 17). The U.S.-based 21 VENTURES invested $3MN in Israel’s AgentVideo Intelligence’s 2nd round, in addition to its $13MN prior investment (Globes, Oct. 3). SIMPLE GREEN is establishing an Israel plant for $2MN (Globes, Oct. 1).
6. REAL ESTATE OVERSEAS INVESTMENT GROWTH. U.S. CAPITAL has established an Israel office (Sept. 21).
