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Telstra has inked a
five-year deal with Israeli firm Amdocs to spend $100 million on a major
technology upgrade for its Sensis directories business. The group, which
publishes the Yellow and White Pages, has a project under way involving more
than 100 people to install a new information technology platform focused on
improving its growing internet business.
The project is Sensis's equivalent of the $11 billion transformation project
under way in Telstra's main business, and will eventually lead to Sensis
rationalising its network to a single internet protocol system
* Published
by Globes [online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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FIJIAN OPERATOR TO USE
WIMAX SOLUTION FROM ALVARION
Wireless broadband
solutions company Alvarion announced that Fiji International Communications
Limited (FINTEL), the country's international telecommunications provider,
has selected BreezeMAX to offer WiMAX data services to the businesses and
residents of the Fiji
islands. Working with Paclink, a South Pacific systems integrator, FINTEL
will start by offering services in the capital city of Suva, later expanding to more of the 330
islands in the south Pacific archipelago.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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ORMAT TO BUILD GEOTHERMAL PLANT IN NZ
Ormat Technologies Inc., a builder of geothermal and recovered energy
power plants, won contracts worth about $20 million for a new power plant in Ngawha, New
Zealand. The company will build the plant
for Top Energy Ltd., an environmentally friendly electricity network company
in New Zealand.
Ormat expects the plant will take 20 months to build.
The addition of the plant will bring New Zealand's power plant
capacity to 200 megawatts. Top Energy has operated another 12-megawatt Ormat
geothermal power plant in Ngawha since June 1998.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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MOBILEACCESS TO INSTALL
NETWORKS AT US FOOTBALL STADIUMS
One of the biggest sports events of the year is the Superbowl, which attracts
millions of television viewers around the world. An entire industry has grown
around the event and handsome profits can be made. One company cashing in is
Israeli start-up Mobile Access, which has developed wireless communications
for media coverage within buildings.
MobileAccess will install its Universal Wireless Network at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, and
at the University
of Phoenix Stadium, the
new home of the Arizona Cardinals, which will host the 2008 Superbowl.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il
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AMDOCS
ACQUIRES ISRAELI SIGVALUE FOR $85 MILLION
Israeli founded, billing and customer-care software giant Amdocs, with
$2.4 billion in revenue, is acquiring Israeli real-time cellular billing
and messaging applications startup SigValue Technologies. SigValue's
technology aims to solve the problem of billing prepaid customers for
use of added-value services, such as SMS messaging and purchases vial
cellular internet. SigValue has 75 employees and had sales of $10 million
in 2006.
*Invest
in Israel
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GILAT TO PROVIDE MORE
SATELLITE STATIONS TO MEXICO SCHOOLS
Gilat Satellite Networks
has signed a contract with Alef Soluciones Integrales and Corporative Lanix
to provide a 4,400-site SkyEdge VSAT network, serving more than 7,700 Mexican
public-school classrooms, to support the middle-school phase of the Mexican
Ministry of Education's Enciclomedia program. The deployment of the network
hub and terminals has already begun. Gilat did not disclose the size of the
contract, but market sources estimate it at $5 million.
Last year, Gilat announced it had provided more than 15,000 SkyEdge VSATs and
services to support the first phase of the Enciclomedia program, which
focused on primary schools. Combined with the new contract, Gilat’s
SkyEdge will connect 41,000 Mexican classrooms.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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HP EXPANDING ISRAEL R&D CENTER
Hewlett Packard subsidiary HP-Mercury
Interactive announced the expansion of its Israeli R&D center. The
company is hiring 150 software engineers, including Java and QA engineers, as
well as computer science students and graduates. HP-Mercury has 660 employees
in Israel, and HP’s
largest R&D center outside the US
is in Israel.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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NEXTWAVE, MICROSOFT AND POLYCOM BEGAN
2007 WITH ACQUISITIONS IN ISRAEL
US technology company, Nextwave acquired Israeli developer of metro
Wi-Fi network solutions, Go-Networks, which Network World listed as
a top 10 start-up to watch in 2005, for $46.6 million. After announcing
its new R&D center in Israel
and the acquisition of two other Israeli companies in 2006, Microsoft
acquired Israeli start-up Secured Dimensions, which has developed technology
for the protection of applications based on Microsoft's .NET platform.
Polycom, a leading manufacturer of teleconferencing and videoconferencing
equipment, acquired Israeli Destiny Conferencing, developer of patented
communication and conferencing solutions, for $47.6 million.
*Invest
in Israel
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ORACLE OPENS NEW ISRAEL R&D CENTER
Oracle Corp. inaugurated its new R&D center in Petah Tikva, its first
center in Israel.
The center is based on the technology and personnel of start-up Demantra,
which Oracle acquired in May 2006 for $41 million. The R&D center will
supply Oracle with Demantra’s demand forecasting applications. Oracle
said that the center would integrate Demantra’s products with Oracle CRM
applications acquired from PeopleSoft and ERP applications acquired from
Siebel Systems.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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NICE SIGNS TWO NEW DEALS
Digital recording company
NICE Systems of Ra'anana has received what it describes as a 7-digit order in
the UK.
The order, from Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain’s
rail infrastructure, is for NICE's solutions for the reconstruction, analysis
and distribution of voice communications. Initial roll-out entails
implementation at 270 signal boxes.
Network Rail is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and development
of Britain’s
tracks, signaling system, rail bridges, tunnels, level crossings, viaducts,
and 17 key stations. As part of its National Voice Recorder Project, NICE
will fulfill phase one of the project that will ensure all interactions
between signal operators and train drivers are captured and stored. Network
Rail will also deploy Scenario Replay, NICE’s event reconstruction
solution that facilitates faster compilation of evidence and information
sharing in the event of a post-incident inquiry.
NICE Systems also announced
that the City of Dallas
has selected its interaction analytics and its IEX workforce management
solutions to improve emergency response and customer service in the city's
communications center. The city of Dallas has
a population of over 1.2 million people, making it the ninth largest city in
the US.
The Dallas
9-1-1/3-1-1 center is staffed by 250 highly skilled telecommunications
service specialists, who handle more than 2 million calls each year. NICE
will provide the City of Dallas
with performance-boosting solutions which make it possible to capture and
analyze interactions, and evaluate, coach and train call staff.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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CRESCENDO NETWORKS
RAISES $10M
Crescendo Networks, a
developer of solutions for optimizing enterprise application performance, has
closed a third financing round, raising $10 million. The round was led by
Evergreen Partners, which was joined by the company’s existing
investors, Apax Partners, Stage One Ventures, Magnum Communications Fund and
Convergent Capital.
Crescendo Networks was founded in 2002, and has raised $17 million to date.
The company’s technology accelerates performance of enterprise servers
and critical software applications. Its products improve the performance of
enterprise data centers, speeds up end user response, and significantly
increase the volume of user traffic that centers can handle.
Crescendo’s platform competes with products manufactured by Cisco
Systems Inc., and F5 Networks Inc. Crescendo Networks’ applications are
now deployed at dozens of data centers worldwide. The company has won a
number of awards, including a listing by technology magazine “Red
Herring” in its list of top 100 innovators, the Most Innovative
Start-Up award from “Network Magazine,” and the InterOp award in
the performance enhancement category at the InterOp conference in Las Vegas.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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RAD GLOBAL SALES GROW BY MORE THAN 12% IN 2006 TO REACH
$168 MILLION
Privately held
RAD Data Communications, now celebrating its 25th anniversary as a
leading manufacturer of network access equipment for data communications and
telecommunications applications, announced that its consolidated revenues in
2006 reached $168 million, an increase of more than 12 percent over the
previous year’s figures. At the same time, RAD marked another major
milestone when the total number of its products that have been deployed
worldwide surpassed the ten million mark.
*RAD Press Release
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BRONFMAN OFFERS $642M
FOR IDB’S SUPER-SOL STAKE
IDB Holding Corp.
subsidiary Discount Investment Corporation disclosed more details about the
offer by Bronfman-Fisher Investments Ltd. for Super-Sol Ltd. Discount
Investment says the negotiations are for the purchase of its entire 59%
holding in Super-Sol, and that Bronfman-Fisher has offered $642 million, giving
the Israel’s largest retail chain a company value of $1.09 billion. The
offer reflects a 24% premium on Super-Sol’s current market cap on the
TASE. Discount Investment said it was reviewing the offer, but that no deal
was assured.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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SOLEL
BONEH WINS $60M NIGERIA
ROADWORKS CONTRACTS
Solel Boneh International has won two contracts worth $60 million altogether
to carry out roadwork in southwest Nigeria. One project is for the
road from Lagos west to Benin, the
other is on the Lagos-Ibadan highway. Four months ago, the company won a $252
million contract to build a road in Nigeria.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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ORMAT TECHNOLOGY WINS TEXAS GEOTHERMAL LEASE
Ormat Industries subsidiary Ormat
Technologies has been awarded Texas’s
first lease for geothermal energy. The company paid $55,645 at $5 an acre for
the right to explore land along the Gulf Coast
for pockets of hot water and steam under the sea. Ormat Technologies has
signed a number of energy contracts recently, including one with Basin
Electric Power Cooperative for five recovered energy generation (REG) power
plants in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota; a contract to build a $20
million new geothermal power plant in Ngawha, New Zealand; and is
participating in a $200 million, 340-megawatt geothermal project in Sarulla,
Sumatra in Indonesia.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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PHOENIX, PARTNER BUY 70%
OF JERUSALEM MALL PROJECT
Delek Group Ltd. subsidiary Israel
Phoenix Assurance Ltd. and New Home In Jerusalem Ltd. have bought 70% of a
planned 16,000-sq.m. shopping center to be built in the Ramot neighborhood of
Jerusalem. Phoenix and New Home
paid $38.7 million for the stake. Phoenix
has an 18-month option to buy another 10% of the project from the date the
building permit is granted. Under the terms of the contract, $1.5 million
will be deducted from the price if the return on investment falls below 7.5%
on space not leased to anchor stores over a period of seven years. The
shopping center has already leased space to supermarket chain Blue Square
Israel and Super Pharm Ltd.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK
BONDS TO BE TAX EXEMPT IN ISRAEL
Israelis who buy bonds issued by
the European Investment Bank (EIB) will not have to pay tax in Israel on their profits, after the Knesset
Finance Committee today approved a Ministry of Finance directive, exempting
the bank’s investments in Israel from tax. Finance Ministry
officials attending today’s session said that the EIB plans to issue
bonds in Israel.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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FISHMAN LAUNCHES $330M INDIAN REAL ESTATE PROJECT
Fishman Holdings has bought land in Thane,
India, north
of Mumbai for construction of a 770,000-sq.m. high-tech, commercial and
office project at an investment of $330 million. The purchase of the 100-230
acre site cost $23.6-54.3 million. The deal is expected to be closed within
nine months.
* Published by Globes
[online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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GIVEN
IMAGING SELECTED AS 2007 WORLD
ECONOMIC FORUM TECHNOLOGY PIONEER
Given Imaging Ltd. announced that The World Economic Forum has selected the
Company as one of its Technology Pioneers for 2007. Technology Pioneers are companies that have
been identified as developing and applying highly transformational and
innovative technologies in the areas of energy, biotechnology and health, and
information technology. In addition, the company must
demonstrate visionary leadership, show the signs of being a long-standing
market leader – and its technology must be proven. Over 225 companies were nominated for this
prestigious honor with the final selection made by a panel of leading
technology experts appointed by the World Economic Forum. The Forum
announced 47 visionary companies as Technology Pioneers 2007.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il
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GIVEN IMAGING TO LEAD EU CANCER-DETECTION GROUP
Given Imaging has received approval
from the European Commission of the Sixth Framework Programme for Research
and Development to lead a consortium that will develop an integrated
imaging-biosensing system to screen for cancer of the gastrointestinal tract.
The "Nano-based capsule-Endoscopy with Molecular Imaging and Optical
biopsy" (NEMO) project was launched in Tel-Aviv in November 2006.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il
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KAMADA WINS S.AMERICAN RABIES DRUG CONTRACT
Drug development company Kamada
Ltd. announced that it won a tender in Latin America to supply its rabies
drug. Several companies participated in the tender, of which Kamada won the
lion’s share. The company expects sales of the drug to this market to
exceed $2.5 million in 2007, in addition to sales in other territories.
Kamada CEO David Tsur said that the company’s rabies drug was
administered intravenously, and that it was considered safer and more
hygienic that any other rabies drug on the market. Kamada began marketing it
in 2003, and it is now sold in a number of South American and Asian
countries, with sales reaching $3 million in 2005. Kamada is now applying for
licenses to market the drug in additional countries, including the US.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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SCIGEN
OPENS BIOPHARMA MANUFACTURING AND R&D PLANT IN ISRAEL
SciGen, a Singaporean biotechnology,
opened a new manufacturing plant in Israel only 6 months after its announcement.
The new 120-employee plant, which SciGen invested $30 million dollars
in, will manufacture a Hepatitis B vaccine. Saul Mashaal, CEO of SciGen
stated, "Our operations in Israel are unique, in the plant
that we opened here and in general in the research labs that will operate
in conjunction… There is no substitute to the Israeli human capital."
The Israeli manufacturing plant is expected to greatly enhance SciGen’s
market penetration in this vaccine segment.
* Invest
in Israel
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MAGAL REPORTS US$1.3
MILLION ORDER FOR LIFE SAFETY SYSTEM
Magal Security Systems, Ltd. announced its wholly owned UK subsidiary, Senstar-Stellar
Limited, has received an order of approximately US$ 1.3 million. The order is
to replace a personnel-attack alarm system at the State Hospital Facility in Scotland with
Senstar-Stellar's FLAREŽ Emergency Locating System. The work will be
completed during 2007.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel
business news - www.globes.co.il
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NICE WINS TWO MAJOR
CONTRACTS IN ASIA
Nice Systems has received an initial seven-digit order from China’s
Ministry of Railway for the company’s video content analysis solutions
to ensure the security of passengers on Qing Zang rail - the railroad
connecting Lhasa in Tibet to Germu in Qinghai. NICE’s solution was
selected because it can operate efficiently even in very challenging
conditions such as very low temperatures and under extremely low air
pressure. The solution will be deployed to help protect the railway including
its tracks and stations, to verify that there is no damage and to prevent
accidents.
Nice also announced it has received an order to provide security
situation systems for Bangkok's
new international airport, in a contract worth millions. The company said the
"7-digit order" covers advanced video recording solutions for Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand. The airport has
the world's largest control tower (434 feet), and the world's second largest
single terminal building, occupying a huge 563,000 square meters.
* Published by The Marker Online
– The Haaretz site for Business & Technology
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TADIRAN GETS $20.5M
FOLLOW-ON DEFENSE MINISTRY ORDER
Elbit Systems subsidiary Tadiran Communications has received a $20.5 million
follow-on order from the Ministry of Defense for advanced tactical
communications systems for the IDF. The original $19.6 million order was
placed in December 2005.
The communications systems support simultaneous high-speed voice and data
transmissions, use advanced communications protocols and software-controlled
radio features. Deliveries will be made during 2010 by Tadiran
Communications’ Florida subsidiary
Tallahassee Communications Industries, and financed with US military aid. The company said
it expects more orders for these systems in the future.
* Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il
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