The month of May 2018 was highlighted by remarkable acquisition activity for Israeli companies.
The daddy of them all was the acquisition of Haifa-headquartered fragrance and flavor multinational Frutarom by International Flavors & Fragrances of New York in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $7.1 billion.
Frutarom hasn’t slowed its own rapid acquisition program in the meantime. Today (May 31) the company announced it has bought 51% of the shares of Bremil Indústria, Brazil’s top producer of savory solutions, for approximately $30 million with an option to buy the remaining shares.
In the same week the Frutarom buyout was announced, Modi’in-based video review, search and analysis technology pioneer BriefCam revealed its upcoming acquisition by Japanese giant Canon, a world leader in digital imaging solutions. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Google announced plans to acquire Velostrata of Netanya, whose patented technology allows workloads to migrate to the public cloud transparently in minutes. The partnership with Velostrata will enable Google Cloud customers to simplify their onboarding process to Google Cloud Platform.
Indorama Ventures, a global chemical producer headquartered in Bangkok, will acquire a 65.72% stake in Tel Aviv-based Avgol Industries, manufacturer of ultra-lightweight spun-melt nonwoven materials for the hygiene industry.
Avgol has production sites in Israel, the United States, Russia, China and India, with a combined production capacity of 203,000 tons per year and 900 employees worldwide. Indorama Ventures has 15,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of $8.4 billion in 2017.
Israeli-founded QualiTest Group, play software testing and business assurance company, is acquiring the Testing Services Division of Orasi Software, an Atlanta-based software reseller and professional services company, as well as NCC Group SDLC Limited, the software testing business unit of NCC Group in the UK. QualiTest Group is headquartered in Petah Tivka and Connecticut, with plans to expand further across the United States and United Kingdom.
The upcoming acquisition of Gamatronic Electronic Industries of Jerusalem by smart energy company SolarEdge Technologies of Herzliya will position SolarEdge to enter the cutting-edge field of uninterruptible power supply (UPS), a multi-billion-dollar market.
Another Israeli-Israeli acquisition during May 2018 was “relationship marketing” technology leader Optimove’s buyout of the DynamicMail business from PowerInbox, which specializes in email real-time personalization and dynamic subscriber engagement. The deal is expected to enhance Optimove’s existing email product, Optimail. Both companies have offices in worldwide cities and are based in Tel Aviv.
Electronic Arts of California acquired cloud gaming technology assets and personnel of a Caesarea-based subsidiary of GameFly to expand the reach of cloud gaming by streaming to more players, on more devices, in more geographic regions of the world.
Precision agriculture intelligence platform Taranis, which has operations in Israel, the United States, Russia, Argentina and Brazil, acquired all assets of San Francisco-based Mavrx, a world-leading agriculture aerial imagery provider. Taranis will now manage more than 20 million acres on its precision agriculture intelligence platform to provide insights for top retailers, input manufacturers and large farms. Mavrx sales and operations teams will join Taranis US operations to serve existing and new clients.
Interactive video company Kaltura acquired the interactive personalized video startup Rapt Media of Colorado. Founded in Israel, Kaltura has approximately 500 employees across offices in New York, London, Sao Paolo, Singapore and Tel Aviv.
(via Israel21c)
[Photo: Israel21c ]