FACTS ABOUT ISRAEL ECONOMY
- In a review on the Israeli economy entitled "Israel, Almost Perfect", U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted the Bank of Israel's key rate will rise to 5.75% in 2006.
- Both Moody's Investor Services and credit rating company Standard & Poors (S&P) granted a vote of confidence in the Israeli economy in the past few months. Moody's Investor Services upgraded its outlook for its international market rating for Israel to "positive". "Israel is exhibiting considerable growth of GDP per capita, moving towards a level more often associated with advanced economies than with developing ones," said the report.
Warren Buffett Invests $4 Billion in Israel
Warren Buffett, labeled the biggest investment guru of all time, and his investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., announced an agreement to buy 80% of Israeli company Iscar Ltd. for $4 billion.
Iscar Metalworking Companies (IMC) is an industry leader in the metal cutting tools business. The deal is the largest acquisition ever by Buffett outside the U.S. and the third largest investment ever made by Berkshire. Buffett expressed interest in investing in additional Israeli companies.
Mergers and Acquisitions
- Israeli-founded Passave, maker of semiconductors for Fiber to the Home (FTTH), was sold to U.S. company PMC Sierra for around $300 million.
- Microsoft announced plans to acquire secure sockets layer (SSL) and virtual private networks (VPN) vendor Whale Communications, for about $75 million. Whale marks Microsoft's first acquisition of an Israeli company since 2001.
- Verifone Holdings Inc. (NYSE:PAY) announced its intention to buy Israel-based Lipman Electronics Engineering for $793 million. The two companies are the fastest growing and most profitable providers of point of sale electronic payment technologies.
- Data storage systems giant EMC plans to unite its three recent Israeli acquisitions - Kashya ($153 million), nLayers ($50 million) and ProActivity ($30 million) and turn them into a new development center in Israel, with 80 employees.
- Unicorn Solutions, developers of software for metadata management is being acquired by IBM.
 THE CONFERENCE - NOVEMBER 7th |
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| OPTIPAC CONFERENCE ON NOV. 8th |
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| EXHIBITION NEWS FLASH |
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| CNBC |
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| INNOVATION PAVILION |
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| INDUSTRY GLOBAL ANALYSIS |
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| TELECOM INDUSTRY NEWS |
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| FACTS ABOUT ISRAEL ECONOMY |
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| FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN ISRAEL |
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| BUSINESS MEETINGS |
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| EXHIBITORS LIST |
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