The last few years have been a bit of a rollercoaster for tech entrepreneurs and investors. The highs were high, the lows were low, and the future seemed uncertain. Luckily, Vintage Investment Partners, an Israel-based fund of funds and growth investor, shared a series of graphs posted by Asaf Horesh (links at the bottom of …
Continue reading “The VC shakeup 2020-2024 and what’s ahead”
It would be hard to compete with Google on search, Facebook on social networking and Amazon on ecommerce.
According to the IVC Meitar exits report for H1 2017, Israeli high-tech exits total $1.95 billion in the first half of the year in 57 deals, at a five-year low, both in terms of deal number and total amount.
Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler has a radical premise: cooperation triumphs over self-interest. In a lecture this month in Tel Aviv, he called for cooperation and community as a tool to fundamentally transform business.
Groucho Marx could have been talking about the Israeli hi-tech sector when he said “I made a killing on Wall Street a few years ago…I shot my broker”. In 2012, as Israeli exits topped $5.5 billion, there was reason to celebrate but plenty of cause for concern.
This week marks the annual orgy of PR excess known as the Consumer Electronics Show. More than 150,000 (mostly male) visitors, many sporting T-shirts with mysterious acronyms like “4K in HD3D”, will alternate between 2 million square feet of exhibition space and the craps tables. Unfortunately for the 3,200 exhibitors, their marketing dollars will be squandered. Although I will predict a few likely trends, when it comes to CES, what happens in Vegas really does STAY in Vegas.
On aggregate, putting a dollar into Israeli high-tech could yield you more than double the returns (if only these things worked on aggregate!). In the last decade, Israeli high-tech companies raised approximately $15 billion from investors, compared to more than $37 billion received in M&A and IPO exits, according to the latest IVC report.
Now it’s official – Microsoft has formally announced the acquisition of Israeli startup Zoomix, for an undisclosed amount, estimated at $20-30 million by market sources (according to Globes). Acquisition rumors were first reported about a month ago. Following the acquisition, Zoomix’s team is set to join Microsoft’s R&D center in Israel, and Zoomix Accelerator, the company’s …
VMware (NYSE: VMW), the leading developer of virtualization solutions, has announced the acquisition of Israeli start-up B-hive Networks for an undisclosed sum. Industry experts estimate the price range at tens of millions. Following the merger in Q3 of 2008, VMWare plans to open an R&D center in Israel, based initially on B-Hive’s facilities and team …
Continue reading “VMWare Snatches B-Hive, Opens R&D Center in Israel”
The local high tech industry in Israel continues to provide exits for investors mainly through the M&A route, while the rest of the world struggles with IPOs. According to a recent study published by IVC Online, Israeli high tech M&A deals were valued at $3.2 billion in 2007, spanning across 75 deals, the second highest …
Continue reading “The Golden Age of Israeli Startups: Mergers and Acquisitions (Part III)”
