insights

by Shmulik Shelah

Sources inform ”Globes” that semiconductor giant Broadcom Inc. made its seventh acquisition in Israel a few days ago, acquiring image processing company Sightic Vista Ltd. The acquisition was reportedly for $10-20 million, less than Broadcom normally spends and below the threshold requiring notification. Broadcom confirmed the acquisition, but declined to provide additional details. Sightic declined to comment. Sightic develops software and hardware image processing and enhancement solutions for integration into high quality, miniature digital cameras and video applications. The solutions include algorithms for processing images and multimedia applications for mobile devices. Relatively little was invested in the company by private investors, with no involvement by venture capital funds. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000603868&fid=1725

by Yuval Azulai

Israeli automated vehicle identification (AVI) products for fuel delivery developer GasnGo Ltd. is breaking into the US market. After year-long negotiations, the company has signed an exclusive cooepraiton agreement with OPW for the sale of GasnGo’s products in North America. Energy sources estimate the deal at $5 million in the first year, and at tens of millions of dollars over the next five years, the period of the contract. GasnGo is a unit of Petratech International Ltd. Its chairman and principle shareholder is Mordechai Ben-Shach and its CEO is Sagi Cohen. The company’s AVI systems, which OPW will begin to market shortly, can be easily installed into vehicles, and their data encryption prevents fraud at vehicle fleets. A year ago, GasnGo signed a similar exclusive agreement with a company in Mexico. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000602955&fid=1725

by Batya Feldman

Personalized ads solutions developer myThings Ltd. has raised $6 million in its third financing round, led by Deutsche Telekom AG venture capital arm T-Venture. Current investors Accel Partners, Carmel Ventures, Dotcorp Asset Management, and GP Bullhound also participated. myThings CEO Benny Arbel and Udi Zaidman founded the company five years ago to develop technology for the personalized advertising market. Both men are serial entrepreneurs of internet ventures. myThings’ technology enables online retailers and marketers to place personalized ads tailored to internet users’ search habits. The company only uses non-personally identifiable information to perform its retargeting service. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000603181&fid=1725

by Tzahi Hoffman

Cellphone games platform developer Mo’Minis Ltd. has raised $3 million in its third financing round from Mitsui Ventures, the venture capital arm of Japanese giant Mitsui & Co. Ltd., BRM Capital, and other current investors. Mo’Minis raised $1.9 million prior to the present round. Mo’Minis has developed a platform for casual games on mobile telephones. The platform helps games developers create content that is automatically supported by a large number of handsets, as well as saving development time and conversion of games between telephones. When development of a game is completed, Mo’Minis participates in its commercialization via the company’s distribution network. Mo’Minis CTO Tzach Hadar, VP community & content Eyal Rabinovich, and VP R&D Zvi Rabinovich founded the company. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000602948&fid=1725