News Briefs

August 12, 2014 | The Israeli mathematics team won first prize at the International Mathematics Competition for the first time ever. The competition was held this year in Bulgaria. The team consisted of four students from Tel Aviv University and two Technion students. The competition has been held for 20 years and this is the first time that the Israeli team won against 72 other groups from universities around the world.

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August 12, 2014 | According to a report in “The Marker,” Formula Systems, an Israeli technological holding company, is set to sell its 48 percent share in Sapiens to Francisco Partners at $10 a share, totaling $460 million for acquisition of the company. The price offered up by Formula Systems for Sapiens is nearly 30 percent higher than the current market value of the company, $350 million. Sapiens, headed by Roni Al-Dor, is an internationally and publicly traded company on NASDAQ and TA100 headquartered in Israel and specializing in computer software solutions for the insurance industry. Francisco Partners specializes in investing and turning high tech companies around within 5 years after acquiring them, with offices in San Francisco and London.

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August 12, 2014 | Cisco, a global communications company, announced that it will fire nearly 300 employees in Israel as part of an international streamlining effort made by the company. Cisco currently has more than 1,300 employees in Israel, following the acquisitions of NDS and Jungo in recent years. Cisco’s last wave of layoffs took place in 2013 when dozens of Israeli and hundreds of international employees were fired as part of a five percent global cut by the company. Cisco is the developer, manufacturer and marketer of products for communication networks, IPTV, data storage and security.

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August 12, 2014 | The medical device company Medigus announced that it has begun the developed of the world’s smallest video camera for medical purposes. As part of the development, the company will establish a camera division to support its expansion into the revolutionary micro camera business. Medigus specializes in the production of minimally invasive endosurgical tools, like the trans-oral surgical system for the treatment of GERD without the need for incisions. The lead product of Medigus’s camera division is the ScoutCam 1.2, a 1.22mm waterproof video camera that can used in extreme environments and is the smallest camera in the world. The Medigus camera division will be led by Yaron Silberman PhD and Vice President of Sales & Marketing.

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August 12, 2014 | The Israeli clothing franchise Fox is in talks to purchase the Nike Israel franchise that includes 27 brand stores. According to a “Globes” report, if the agreement goes through, Fox would become the exclusive owner of the franchise, but Nike merchandise would still be delivered to retailers by Nike International. The agreement may come as Nike International has expressed that its Israeli stores are not realizing their sales potential. Founded in 1942 before the creation of the State of Israel, Fox is headquartered in Tel Aviv with stores throughout Israel and in Russia, Singapore, China, Thailand, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Panama and Canada.

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August 12, 2014 | Fiverr, the world’s largest marketplace for freelancers, announced that it raised $30 million in Series C funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Qumra Capital and other private investors. Although Fiverr launched in 2010 as a platform for buying and selling services for $5, the platform has quickly become the world’s largest service marketplace, listing over 3 million jobs in over 100 categories in 196 countries. Fiverr has a team of 130 employees in Tel Aviv, New York and Miami and hopes to use the funds to shift the company’s focus to a new workplace where freelancers and business owners can connect on a global level. Fiverr was founded in 2009 by Hari Arjun and Shai Wininger.

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August 11, 2014 | Teva announced that it will sue Indian pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s for a generic version of three-times-a-week Copaxone 40 mg/mL treatment. Copaxone is a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis approved by the Food & Drug Administration in the United States. Teva plans to file a lawsuit against Dr. Reddy’s for patent infringement within 45 days, the allotted amount of time according to the Hatch-Waxman Act in the United States. Teva asserts that Copaxone is protected by two Orange Book patents that remain in effect until 2030. Teva is an international pharmaceutical company headquartered in Petach Tikvah, Israel specializing in the creation of generic and proprietary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

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August 11, 2014 | Adama Agricultural Solutions reported that it plans to submit a draft prospectus for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). According to a “Globes” report, it is believed that the company will offer up shares at a market value of $3.5 billion, after money. Goldman Sacs, the company’s underwriter, is expected to lead the offering together with other foreign investment banks. Adama reported a net profit of $59 million in Q/2 2014, up 23.5 percent from the corresponding quarter in 2013. Adama is the producer of pesticides and insecticides managed by CEO Chen Lichtenstein.

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August 11, 2014 | Israeli company ironSource announced that it closed an investment round raising a sum ranging between $80-$100 million. A number of American, European and Asian investors contributed to the funding round ahead of the company’s initial public offering (IPO) scheduled for the second financial quarter of 2015. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley were both hired as underwriters for the IPO, which is anticipated to be valued at nearly $1.5 billion. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, ironSource’s software manages downloads and optimizes processes in order to ensure a better installment success rate for PCs and mobile devices.

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August 10, 2014 | ANP Technologies, a company based in Newark, Delaware, announced that it will collaborate with the Israeli national water company Mekorot on drinking water testing technology. ANP Tech received a $340,000 grant from the BIRD Foundation, a foundation encouraging collaboration between American and Israeli companies, to develop water testing technology together with Mekorot. The technology will be used in municipal water facilities for the water quality monitoring of pesticides. The ANP Tech CEO and founder Ray Yin stated that, for Israel, “Water security is national security,” which is why companies like Mekorot have valuable knowledge that can be added to ANP Tech’s existing water testing technologies.

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August 10, 2014 | Israeli company WikiWand, an interface that beautifies the look of Wikipedia, announced that it raised $600,000 from angel investor Saar Wilf. WikiWand’s goal is to improve the look of Wikipedia’s popular website, which hasn’t changed since the site was launched in 2001, using a browser extension available for Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Wilf sold his Fraud Services company to PayPal in 2008 for $169 million and will serve as WikiWand’s chairman. WikiWands itself hopes to use the new funding to improve its web version and to launch a version for iOS and Android applications. WikiWand was founded by CEO Lior Grossman and CTO Ilan Lewin.

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August 10, 2014 | Seraphim Sense, an Israeli company responsible for the Angel open sensor health and fitness bracelet, announced that it raised $1.1 million. The round of funding was led by Ping An Group, the largest banking and insurance provider in China, with the entire sum invested by the company. The investment is the added to the $334,521 raised in the startup’s Kickstarter campaign that ended last November. Angel is the first open sensor health bracelet designed to be open to an infinite amount of apps like a workout tracker, sleep monitor, a tele-nanny and a golf keeper, among others. Seraphim Sense was founded in 2012 by Eugene Jorov and Amir Shlomovich.

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August 10, 2014 | PrivateCore, a secure server technology provider, was acquired by Facebook for an undisclosed amount. In particular, Facebook is interested in using PrivateCore’s vCage technology that protects servers against malware, validates server data and fends off potentially dangerous hardware. Facebook has plans to incorporate vCage into its servers after the transition of the security company’s resources is completed, according to CEO Oded Horovitz. “Working together with Facebook, there is a huge opportunity to pursue our joint vision at scale with incredible impact,” said Horovitz. PrivateCore was founded in 2012 by security software veterans CEO Oded Horovitz from VMware and CTO Steve Weis from Google and is based in Palo Alto, California.

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August 10, 2014 | VBL Therapeutics announced the termination of its underwriting agreement for its NASDAQ IPO by its underwriters Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo Securities. According to Globe Newswire, the company was forced to terminate its IPO after an unnamed US shareholder did not fund payment shares it previously had agreed to purchase for the offering. As a result, no shares will be offered up in the IPO bid that went into effect on July 30, 2014. VBL Therapeutics is an Israeli clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of treatments for cancer and immune-inflammatory diseases.

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August 10, 2014 | Roche AG notified Israeli startup Chiasma that it has cancelled a commercial agreement to produce a drug for the treatment of acromegaly (gigantism). The agreement was signed between the companies in February 2013 and would have generated $600 million for Chiasma and its investors had it been implemented. Roche announced that it would cancel the deal for the drug that has undergone a Phase III clinical trial, “after receiving additional information about the trial, and after further consultation with the regulatory authorities.” Chiasma now plans to submit the Phase III results to the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, hoping to receive approval to launch its product by 2015. Chiasma is a biopharmaceutical company based in New York and Israel developing oral treatments for drugs that were previously injected.

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