Israel Active

I reported previously on some big orders that Israel’s Camtek had landed for its semiconductor inspection modules.  Now Camtek has sold its whole Printed Circuit Board (PCB) business to China’s Principle Capital fund. Camtek’s Israeli-based and global operations remain intact.

I reported previously on software giant SAP’s Israeli R&D center and its attraction to the Startup Nation. SAP has shown its faith in Israeli technology and economy by building and moving into its new $67 million Ra’anana headquarters - the new home for its 800 R&D employees.

New York City’s NEXUS: Israel education and networking conference, coordinated by American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, brought together over 300 scientists, attorneys, venture capitalists and others to discuss Israel’s latest high-tech advances. See the amazing agenda.

I reported previously about the opportunities to save a fortune in fees by studying for a Law or Business degree in Israel in English, and then finishing your qualifications in the USA. Israel’s College of Law & Business is holding its 2017 Open House on 2nd Aug.

Israeli cybersecurity “giant” CyberArk has made yet another overseas acquisition by purchasing Massachusetts-based Conjur. Conjur’s revolutionary technology secures Development / Operations and increases CyberArk’s business prospects within the DevOps arena.

Israel’s Modiin Energy has found signs of oil during its preliminary drilling of the Mountain View project in Kern County, California. It now proposes production tests, to estimate the rate of production and the size of the reservoir in the prospect. Modiin is also testing at the nearby GrapeVine project.

Travelers are now able to order taxis using the Gett app after landing at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, ending Hadar-Lod Taxi’s monopoly on airport taxi services.  Also, taxis bringing passengers to the airport can now wait to pick up arriving passengers, even those who haven’t pre-booked.

303,000 tourists entered Israel in June 2017, 28% more than in June 2016. Jan to June saw a 26% increase in visitors, to an all-time-record of 1.74 million. Estimated revenue from incoming tourism in this period was NIS 9.4 billion. Tourism from the USA (the largest in total) increased by 20%

Israeli Eugene Romanovsky went to great lengths to sell his 1996 Suzuki Vitara by making an elaborate video using visual effects that has generated millions of views. With dramatic music, the car appears to out-run dinosaurs, races a cheetah, escapes an avalanche and drives to a desert mountaintop.

New York based ticketing platform company SeatGeek has bought Israeli ticketing software company TopTix for $56 million. TopTix will power SeatGeek Open – a radically new approach, in which artists sell tickets through popular ecommerce websites, travel tools, and messaging sites.