Yoram Ettinger: Cisco and Facebook Expand Israel Operations

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco,  in Jerusalem for the recent President's Conference told Israeli business daily Globes: “We’ll expand here soon…. There are a lot of opportunities here. It's the second country, after the US, in terms of start-ups and entrepreneurship. There are companies here that do not grow enough, and what we do is to bring these companies into the Cisco family and grow their activity. I don’t think that there is a better time to invest here, in partnerships, venture capital, and help our partners expand.

In March, Cisco acquired NDS, a London-based company with its development center in Israel, for $5 billion.

“Having the NDS base in Israel, we can enter fields such as security…. Although NDS' headquarters are in Britain, its heart and soul are in Israel," Chambers continued. "This is a country whose leaders and entrepreneurs I believe in. I believe that it's possible to find a successful formula for both sides…. Cisco and the Israeli government have set up a joint team to examine ways of expanding their collaboration" (Globes Business Daily, June 21, 2012).

Cisco Systems Israel is Cisco’s second-largest design center outside the United States with over 750 employees, including 500 research and development engineers. Among Cisco’s numerous Israeli acquisitions are:  ClassData, $50 million (May, 1998); InfoGear, $300 million (March, 2000); HyNEX, $127 million (June 2000); Actona, $100 million (June, 2004); P-Cube, $200 million (August, 2004); and as mentioned - NDS, $5 billion, March 2012.

For its part, Facebook acquired Israel’s Face.Com for between $50 million-$100 million, its second Israeli acquisition, following the March 2011 acquisition of Snaptu for $70 million.

Lars Christensen, founder and CEO of Denmark’s Saxo Bank – the second largest foreign exchange broker in the world - which has recently entered the Israeli market: “We’ve identified a long-term potential in the Israeli market, especially due to Israel’s competitive edge in the area of technology.” In July, 2011 Saxo Bank acquired 25% of Israel’s Leverate and 100% of the activities of Israel’s Lembex Trading and Investment.

Originally published at http://www.theettingerreport.com/Home.aspx