According to Haaretz,  Teva has been going on a “little” shopping spree, buying companies as if they were cute pairs of shoes they just had to have. (And FYI, this Teva company has no connection to the Israeli hikers’ beloved Teva sandal co., incidentally made in China.) Recently, Teva purchased Barr Pharmaceuticals, “the fourth largest generic firm in the U.S., for $7.46 billion.” Teva had previously bought “Ivax in January 2006 for $7.4 billion and Sicor in October 2003 for $3.4 billion.” Even though Teva is already the world’s biggest generic drug maker, maxing out its credit cards on all these ‘steals’ will elevate Teva to a “generic powerhouse employing about 37,000 people globally and operating directly in more than 60 countries.”

The big reversal

A quick look at Globes or Techcrunch, will leave you numb from repetitive headlines such as “Company X acquires Company Y for Z million dollars”. However, if these headlines refer to Israel, it’s usually because an American company is buying out an Israeli hi-tech startup. Just search for “Microsoft buys Israeli startup” in Google and you’ll see what I mean. Here’s a few examples of startups Microsoft has bought lately:

• Zoomix data quality software
• YaData – ad targeting company
• Kidaro – Virtualization Startup
• Gteko – developer of technical support products

But Teva’s takeover has turned the tables proving that an Israeli company can buy out a huge US company. And, at 7.46b, it’s mighty impressive!

But the Ministry of Tourism has set its goals much, much higher, hoping to bring 5 million tourists in 2012. The Director of Tourism Shaul Tzemach is already nervous about a room shortage. As they say, that should be our worst problem! Anyone want to rent out their apartment for a few days? I volunteer. Tourists usually mean m-o-n-e-y. I say, bring it.

You know what this major increase in tourism will mean for Israel, don’t you? More hotels which means more construction! And Israelis just love construction and detours. There are 90 million shekels going towards encouraging tourism and millions more for the construction of more hotels in Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee area, Acre, Ashdod, Kiryat Shmona and the Upper Galilee. That brings the total cost to 1 billion shekels. The number feels too big to comprehend and reminds me of Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil suggesting the largest amount he could fathom “1 milllliion dollars”.

John Chambers

“Venture capital is not about money, it’s about expertise,” he said, referring to Israel’s strength as an innovator.
“We’re deeply committed to Israel and intend to expand,” Chambers said adding that he was “very satisfied” with his company’s activities in Israel.

Cisco Systems Inc (Nasdaq: CSCO) with a market capital of $145 billion, is the world’s premier networking company and is responsible for many innovations, particularly in the world of Web 2.0. Cisco has acquired nine Israeli companies, and it seems he may be doing some shopping on this trip as well:

“I’m going to continue to acquire companies here,” Chambers said, noting Cisco has bought more companies in Israel than in any other location other than the United States. “I think you are going to continue to see us being very proactive in this country. We see a lot of innovation occurring here across everything.”

Chambers has been pretty busy during his trip in Israel. In addition to the dinner, he has unveiled two community projects (with a total investment of 2.5 million dollars) which use technology to advance the peace process and help underprivileged youth.

According to eurofundingMag, “The participation of Israel in community programmes is an important step in the process of progressive economic integration between Israel and the EU in the framework of the ENP.” It seems like Israel plans on being a pretty active participant in this program, having already joined one pillar in the program, and expressing interest joining the other two pillars.

Israel has been involved in other EU innovation-related programs, such as the “Research and innovation” program of the sixth Framework Program.

The Council on Foreign Relations

The interview is really interesting (if you find this kind of thing interesting). Fischer gives a perspective on the Israeli economy that you won’t get in the media or elsewhere, such as how poverty is measured, how Israel has managed to cut government spending, and how taxes will be reduced to 44% in total by 2010! I’m hoping that includes Bituach Leumi (social insurance).

The video is pretty long, but if you can get through some of it, I think you’ll find the information useful and eye-opening.

C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics: The Israeli Economy: Thriving in a Complicated Environment (Video) interview with Stanley Fischer»

Samsung Electronics

TransChip was founded in 1999, and specialises in designing, developing, and marketing image sensors used in digital cameras — complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors.

Samsung spokeswoman Lee Eun-hee said TransChip would be renamed Samsung Semiconductor Israel R&D Center Ltd. and will become the Korean company’s 17th research and development centers around the world. Lee said Samsung bought TransChip “to enhance our competitiveness” in CMOS image sensors.

Here’s a little taste of last year’s event:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mobileye develops systems aimed at preventing traffic accidents by detecting the distance between vehicles, and providing warnings in dangerous situations. Apparently their solution costs less and allows consolidation of multiple applications on a single platform. Mobileye is scheduled to provide its technology in six production platforms in 2007 (start of production) with BMW, GM and Volvo.

Mobileye’s R&D center is in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim hi-tech park, and they have been picked as a Top 100 Private Company in Europe, and Top 100 Innovator by Red Herring.

Did the people behind Mobileye gain their inspiration by watching their fellow Israelis drive? If so, at least something positive has come out of the Israeli driving methodology (honk, wave hands vigorously, put on blinker after changing lanes, etc.).

Israel seems to be pretty strong in the Internet TV arena, with some leading companies like BlogTV, Metacafe, and 5min.

If you know of any other Israeli Internet TV companies, please add them to the comments below.

Answers.com

Answers is a free online service that provides definitions and encyclopedic-entries on millions of topics. Their new plugin will add a button to the toolbar that, when clicked, creates an automatic link from a word to its entry on Answers.com. Here’s the explanation from the press release:

To use the new feature, WordPress.com bloggers will press the AnswerLinks(TM) icon (http://www.answers.com/main/wordpress_howto.jsp) on the WordPress editing toolbar to trigger an application that will suggest terms for automatic linking. Typical suggestions will include names, technical terms or obscure language that may not be familiar to some readers. Only words confirmed by the author will be linked to definitions, assuring full editorial control.

I can see how this could be useful; often when I’m writing about topics that I know many people aren’t familiar with, I’ll link key words to their entry on Wikipedia (lulav and etrog anyone?). This may be a faster way to provide that type of helpful information to users.

What is WordPress? Well, WordPress is a flexible and user-friendly blogging and CMS system. Guess which site runs on WordPress?

(I’ll give you a minute.)

israelplug!