Investments > Israel – a global leader in bio-tech and defense products
Israel – a global leader in bio-tech and defense products
Yoram Ettinger
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #176, June 14, 2013
1. Google is acquiring Israel’s Waze for $1.1BN. Microsoft controls 10% of Waze. Google acquired, in 2012, two Israeli start ups for $25MN (Globes Business Daily, June 10, 11, 2013). China’s Fusson acquired Israel’s Alma Lasers for $221MN (Globes, May 29).
Singapore’s Biosensors International acquired Israel’s Spectrom for $51MN (Globes, May 24). The Pennsylvania-based $3.2BNTeleflex acquired Israel’s Eon Surgical for over $20MN (Globes, June 11).
2. France’s National Electric Company has invested $400MN in Israel’s solar market (Globes, June 5).
3. The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the largest investment fund in the world (funded by Norway’s oil explorations), has invested $686MN in the Tel Aviv stock exchange, $$552MN during the last four years (Globes, June 10).
4. Israeli R&D is present in 20.5% ($24.6BN) of all global bio-tech products ($120BN) – a symptom of the rapidly growing Israeli bio-tech sector and the flow of global giants establishing R&D centers in Israel (Globes, June 7).
5. The largest defense contractor in the USA, Lockheed-Martin, is establishing a computer center in Israel, jointly with Israel’s Binat (Globes, June 5). Israel is the world largest exporter of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) - $4.6BN during the last eight years. This export is expected to grow 5%-10% annually until 2020. Israel’s defense exports exceed $6BN annually, 10% of which consists of UAVs (Globes, May 24).
6. Israel’s KMDA raised $50 on NASDAQ (Globes, June 3). Israel’s AlCobra raised $25MN on NASDAQ (Globes, May 23).Khosla Ventures led a $24MN round of private placement by Israel’s HeathTap, joined by Mayfield Fund and Mohr Davidow Ventures (Globes, May 13). Intel Capitalinvested in Israel’s Reduxio (Globes, June 4).
7. “Israel is helping the US meet the economic, environmental and non-military security (EG. cyber security) challenges of the future…. Israeli experts and start-ups regularly partner with US firms to develop applications such as instant messaging, Internet telephony and data-mining. Intel’s executive, Greg Slater, noted that many of his company’s major innovations over the past three decades started in Israel, including Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge micro-processors, which accounted for 40% of Intel revenues in 2011…. Bill Gates said that the ‘innovations going on in Israel are critical to the future of the technology business….’ Israel accounted for about 25% of US exports to the Middle East in 2011… equaling or surpassing those to oil-rich Saudi Arabia…. Israeli firms have set up manufacturing plants [in the USA] that employ tens of thousands of Americans…. Israel is a top innovatorin the technologies of modern warfare – cyber, unmanned vehicles, robotics, missile defense – an important source of innovations for the US defense contractors and troops…. Israel is also a world leader in micro-irrigation, wastewater management and reverse-osmosis desalination…. Israeli [knowhow] is helping the US promote nation-building at home and security and sustainability abroad (Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2013, Michael Eisenstadt and David Pollock, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
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