News Briefs

Mobile website developer DudaMobile has raised $6 million from Pitango Venture Capital. According to the company, the investment will be used to expand its R&D and marketing. DudaMobile, founded in 2009, adapts websites for smartphones – mainly for small and mid-sized businesses that work with websites rather than mobile applications. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has a development center in Tel Aviv, Israel, with 15 employees.

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The influential technology blog VentureBeat selected Ehud Shabtai, CTO and Co-Founder of the Israeli mobile app Waze, as one of the 10 individuals who are reshaping the mobile industry for 2012. Waze’s driving navigation app provides maps and traffic data and according to VentureBeat has recently reached 15 million users worldwide.

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CTERA Networks, the provider of cloud storage enablement solutions, announced it has secured an undisclosed investment in its recent round of founding, led by the venture capital firm Venrock. Israeli media reported that the investment is believed to be in the vicinity of $15 million. According to the company, the funding included a strategic investment from Cisco and participation of existing investor Benchmark Capital. CTERA is headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel, and has offices in Palo Alto, California.

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Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ramot at Tel Aviv University, Ltd., the Technology Transfer Company of Tel Aviv University, and TRDF Ltd., the Technion Research and Development Foundation today announce that Google will sponsor them to conduct around 20 research projects to address the opportunities of the Internet economy, with a particular focus on the fundamentals of online auctions. Such questions include the economic effects of viral networking, the dynamics of electronic markets, and new formats of selling advertisements.

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U.S. chipmaker Broadcom will sign an agreement with BroadLight, an Israeli developer of processors, to acquire the company for $230 million. The two companies signed a letter of intent and have now completed negotiations. BroadLight, founded in 2000, provides chipsets for fiber optics. This would be Broadcom’s 10th acquisition in Israel, including Provigent, acquired last year for $313 million.

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myThings , an Israeli online advertising technology company, has raised $15 million in a financing round, led by new venture capital fund formed by France Telecom-Orange and advertising firm Publicis. The investment includes existing investors Carmel Ventures, Accel Partners and T-Venture, the investment arm of Deutsche Telekom. myThings, founded in 2005, is a startup that helps increase revenue for advertisers online by providing personalized display advertising, individualized and in real time.

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Photovoltaic technology company SolariPhy has raised $800,000 (NIS 3 million) in a first round of funding from Capital Nature, an investment firm that specializes in early venture Israeli cleantech. SolariPhy was founded two months ago in order to develop applications for greater exploitation of photovoltaic solar panels. The startup aims to double the electricity production capacity of the panels.

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Sony Corporation is actively seeking to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Israeli medical technologies, according to a report in Israeli website Globes. The report says that the company has established a team to review the Israeli market, in order to seek out companies for investment or acquisition. The team has reportedly held meetings with Israeli venture capital funds and companies.

 

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Teva Pharmaceutical Industries launched its generic version of Forest Laboratories’ Lexapro, for the treatment of depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Teva will enjoy six months of marketing exclusivity, as it was the first company to file an Abbreviated New Drug Application with the FDA. Lexapro has been a major revenue generator for Forest Labs with the product generating sales of $1.8 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2012. View and share

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Computer communications giant Cisco Systems is in advanced talks to acquire NDS for $5 billion, Israeli website Calcalist reported. NDS, founded in 1988, is a provider of software solutions for the pay television industry. The company is currently owned by Permira Advisors and News Corp, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Its headquarters are based in the UK and its R&D center is located in Jerusalem, Israel. View and share

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Microsoft has launched the first startup accelerator in the company’s history, to encourage early-stage startups to build cloud-based applications using Windows Azure. As part of the program, Microsoft will provide the participants workspace and coaching. The four-month program will take place at the Microsoft Israel Research and Development Center in Herzliya Pituach, Israel. View and share

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Avaya plc is set to acquire video conferencing solutions developer Radvision, Israeli media reports. Avaya, a provider of business collaboration and communications solutions to companies around the world, will buy the Israeli company for $200-250 million. The deal is expected to be sealed by the end of this week. Radvision was founded in 1992 and provides video conferencing technologies over IP and wireless networks. View and share

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IBM launched an analytics platform that offers personalized treatments for a wide range of long-term health issues including cancer, hypertension and AIDS. The biomedical platform, named Clinical Genomics, was developed by IBM researchers in Haifa, Israel and combines personal health history with an analysis of guidelines and similar cases. The platform will deliver treatment recommendations based on an automated interpretation of pathology guidelines, as well as cases documented in hospital information systems. View and share

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Intel and GE Healthcare, the healthcare division of General Electric, have established a new laboratory in Israel to jointly test new technologies. The two companies announced that the lab will focus on optimizing their new products, such as GE’s ultrasound diagnostic imaging systems. The lab is located near GE Healthcare’s offices and Intel’s R&D center. View and share

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Investment network eToro announced that it has closed a funding round of $15 million from Spark Capital and other investors to fuel international growth and further development of its social trading platform. The new round takes the total amount of funding in the Israel-based company to $33.9 million. eToro’s community powered network enables every investor to see, follow and automatically copy the actions of other investors in real time. According to the company, it has over two million users in over 140 countries. View and share

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