Britannia Radio

Warren Buffett: "Israel's disproportionate quantity of ideas"
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #147
Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: A US-Israel Initiative"
November 25, 2010

1. Warren Buffett (Oct. 11, 2010, Yedioth Achronot daily): "CTD, my [farm equipment] company, has acquired a few Israeli companies [following the 2006 $4BN acquisition of 80% of Israel's Iskar], and another [electromechanical] company, TTI, has also acquired an Israeli company…I expect additional investments in Israel…Israel possesses a disproportionate quantity of brains and ideas…If you look for oil in the Middle East, skip Israel. However, if you look for brains, stop in Israel."

2. Broadcom acquired Israel's Percello for $86MN, its 6^th Israeli acquisition (Globes, Oct. 28). Qualcomm acquired Israel's iSkoot for about $75MN, its 1^st Israeli acquisition, in addition to its R&D center in Haifa (Globes, Oct. 14). Oracle acquired 10% of Israel's Mellanox for $70MN (Globes, Oct. 28).

3. Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners led a $16MN round of private placement by Israel's Oberon (Globes, Nov. 17). Microsoft, Evergreen Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Mariner Investment Group and Spark Fund participated in a $15MN round by Israel's N-Trig (Globes, Nov. 1). Liberty Globalbroadband Internet services, Cisco, Gerylock Partners and Miven Venture Partners led a $12MN round by Israel's Celeno (Globes, Nov. 16). Norwest Venture Partners led a $9MN 2^nd round of private placement by Israel's SundaySky (Globes, Oct. 12). $7.5MN raised by Israel's HealOr from repeat-investors (Globes, Nov. 4).Chicago-based JK&B Capital led a $7MN round by Israel's EarlySense (Globes, Oct. 19). Cisco and Germany's SMAC Partners participated in a $4.9MN round by Israel's Oversi (Globes, Oct. 19). Germany's Baytech co-led a $4.7MN 2^nd round of private placement by Israel's Real Match (Globes, Nov. 16). Redpoint Ventures andSpart Capital participated in a $4.5MN round by Israel's Adap.TV (Globes, Oct. 28). IVF participated in a $4MN round by Israel's SuperFish (Globes, Nov. 8). Britain's CSS invested $2.5MN in Israel's Mapal Green Energy (Glboes, Nov. 26).

4. Israel's buzzing cutting-edge technologies:
According to a November 2 Tel Aviv University press release, a team headed by Prof. Fernando Patolsky of the School of Chemistry developed a nanotechnology-based electronic, cost-effective, time-efficient, user-friendly, portable sensor, which is capable of detecting numerous types of explosives – as well as biological toxins such as anthrax, cholera or botulinum - in a more reliable manner than sniffer dogs. Detection can be made at a distance!