As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. For the Invest in Israel archive, click here. This month’s trend is without a doubt large M&A deals.
CISCO BUYS NDS FOR $5B
NDS, founded in 1988 by scientists from the Weizmann Institute, and which operates a large R&D center in Jerusalem, is being bought by information technology giant Cisco for $5b. NDS, with world headquarters in Stains, UK, specializes in the development of interactive systems for secure delivery of entertainment and information to digital TVs, digital set-top boxes, PCs and mobile devices. The company’s flagship product is its encryption and conditional access system, VideoGuard, which is installed on home TVs via smartcards integrated into set-top boxes.
BROADCOM BUYS BROADLIGHT FOR $230M
US chipmaker Broadcom recently announced the purchase of Israeli processors developer BroadLight for $230m. BroadLight produced semiconductors and software for fiber-to-the-premises broadband access networks. This is Broadcom’s tenth acquisition in Israel, including Provigent, which it bought last year for $313 million.
COVIDIEN BUYS SUPERDIMENSION FOR $300M
Covidien plc (NYSE: COV) will acquire Israel-based bronchial tubes endoscope maker superDimension Ltd. for about $300 million, the company announced in March. Ireland based-Covidien has annual sales of $30 million. SuperDimension’s i-Logic System uses Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy to provide minimally invasive access to lesions in the lungs and is mostly used to diagnose lung cancer.
ISRAELI WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY HITS SPAIN
Blue i Water Technologies, a Tel Aviv-based water-monitoring technology firm, is currently in the process of installing 140 of its quality-inspection devices in Barcelona and 40 more in other areas of Spain. The company’s newest device, called the Low Energy Analyzer (LEA), is a “smart box” that is installed in water pipes underneath Spanish streets and uses a water analyzer and data-logger to collect and transmit data about water quality to a control center, according to company CEO Jacob Azran. Throughout the next year and a half, Blue i Water Technologies will also install an additional 150 systems throughout other parts of Spain.
UK’s AVAYA PLC PURCHASES RADVISION LTD.
Video conferencing solutions developer Radvision Ltd. (Nasdaq: RVSN; TASE: RVSN) has been acquired by Avaya plc (NYSE: AV) for $230 million. Radvision will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya. Avaya president and CEO Kevin Kennedy said, “With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition.”
NEW ISRAEL-KOREAN INVESTMENT FUND TO BOOST MED-TECH RESEARCH
A new joint Israeli-Korean investment fund established to promote advanced medical and biological technology was officially launched on March 15th by Minister of Science and Technology Professor Daniel Hershkowitz along with senior South Korean government officials. Together with several Israeli and foreign investment firms, the fund was launched with initial commitments of NIS 125 million (~ $34 million).
MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES CONVENE IN TEL AVIV
The managers of large multinational companies based in Israel joined Israeli government officials for a day-long conference on March 29th in Tel Aviv. The event, entitled “Multinational R&D at the Heart of the Start-Up Nation,” was organized by Invest in Israel of the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor together with Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI). Managers of international companies including Microsoft, Google, RSA: the security division of EMC, IBM, Dell and Alcatel Lucent shared their companies’ latest developments. A panel discussion with representatives of government bodies allowed participants to deepen their understanding about government incentives and assistance.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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