During the week of May 4, 2008, Israel turned 60 and a few technology companies announced that they will be featured "Enterprises of Tomorrow" during the Israeli Presidential Conference Facing Tomorrow taking place on May 13 to May 15, 2008. The Conference has been organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres and, as the title implies, will focus on the future.

Twenty-seven dignitaries including President Bush and former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, will be on hand for the event, as will several tech luminaries, including Google Co-founder, Sergey Brin; and Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Yossi Vardi, perhaps Israel's greatest entrepreneur, is the Director of Science and Technology Track for the Conference and will lead one of the panels.

In anticipation for the Conference, which I will be attending on May 15th, this post as well as others to come this week will be in relation to the Conference, Israel's 60th and technology, and the 60 "Enterprises of Tomorrow." To get started, here are 10 headlines, mainly from the past week of May 4, 2008, that relate to some of Israel's "Enterprises of Tomorrow."

modu at the Presidential Conference

STMicroelectronics and Mobileye Deliver Second-Generation System-on-Chip for Vision-Based Driver Assistance Systems

AqWise Launches the Next Generation Remote N' Control(TM) Solution for Total Nitrogen Removal and Introduces Its AGAR® Process at IFAT 2008

Israel Cleantech Ventures closes $75m debut fund

Project Better Place debuts electric car

Comsys Selected as ‘Enterprise of Tomorrow’ to Feature at Israeli Presidential Conference

Updated fring version for iPhone (pre-release v. 0.9785)

Israel startup developing software system to identify terrorists

Camero Launches Handheld “Through-Wall Vision” Product

C-true Imaging - "Your Face is your key"


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

This past week, wind turbine start-up, TechnoSpin announced that it raised $8 million. Leviathan Energy signed a letter of intent to provide energy for India worth $50 million and WorkLight, an Enterprise 2.0 company, announced that it raised $12 million. Not surprisingly, the Jerusalem Post website, reported that Israeli start-ups have raised the most capital in 7 years. Also, making the news was that Best Buy will be partnering with community-based, product help site, FixYa, and that Mashable.com, a blog that covers social networks, will be hosting MashBash for 800 people in Tel Aviv next month. Expected attendees will be from some of the hottest Israeli start-ups today and biggest international companies with offices in Israel. I plan on going, and so should you. For more details on this and the rest of this week's 17 Israel-related technology headlines, check out the list below.


Cleantech
Wind turbine start-up TechnoSpin raises $8m

Solel Solar on the Hunt for Newport Beach HQ Space

Leviathan Energy to provide clean electricity for India


M&A and Investments
Start-ups raise most capital in 7 years

BluePhoenix shares jump after 1Q results meet Street views

WorkLight Raises $12 Million


Information Technology
Application security co Applicure gets Trafalgar investment

Deloitte Consulting’s Lucian Lipinsky de Orlov to Lead Fortisphere Webinar on Virtualization Adoption

RoofArena Launches Beta Site; Interview with Shay Sharon

Best Buy buys into tech support 2.0

IBM setting up Israeli Lab for XIV


Miscellaneous
Jeff Pulver resigns as Pulvermedia chairman

Izzy Borovich sees Israel becoming "vacation state"

MashBash Tel Aviv and Israel Media Tour

Electric Nissans Planned in U.S. by 2010

"BusinessWeek" names Israel among innovation hotspots

Social networking meets search: Sightix



About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

This past week saw PLYmedia named Israel's most promising Internet start-up of 2008 by Microsoft, and HP unveil plans for startup incubation. The Internet was abuzz with Fring making unlocked iPhones now VoIP accessible and EyeBlaster's and Dapper's joining to do the mash... up. Oh yeah, and for those who missed my previous post, IBM continued its data storage solutions providers shopping spree, with its purchase of Diligent Technologies for an estimated $200 million. For a link to details on this latest acquisition and the rest of this past week's 24 Israel-related technology headlines, check out the list below.

Cleantech
3. Project Better Place

Water expo opens

Hollywood Premiere Of Award-Winning, New Documentary, "Water"


M&A and Investments
IBM buys Israel's Diligent

Venture Capitalists: U.S. Recession and Unstable Markets Will Slow Investing and Fundraising Activities, M&As and IPOs, KPMG Study Finds

Economy making venture capitalists cautious


Information Technology
TrusCont and CoakleyTech Announce the Launch of TrusCont Enhanced DVD-R Security Solution

Aternity Co-Founder & CTO Recognized as Leading Serial Entrepreneur by Distinguished Financial Journal

HP Israel unveils plans for startup incubation

World’s First Single-Chip, Multi-Message, Digital ChipCorder

Eyeblaster and Dapper Mash It Up Code Free


International
Microsoft names PLYmedia as Israel’s Most Promising Internet Startup of 2008

Israeli firms shine in Red Herring ratings

WorkLight selected AS A WINNER for the Red herring 100 Europe 2008

TruMedia's iCapture Wins Gold Medal at the Euro-Reklama Outdoor Expo


Telecom
Israel Wimax Pilot Moves to Next Stage

Motorola and FIRST Inspire Next Generation of Engineers

Israeli telecom firm Koor intends to buy stake in Tata Teleservice

iPhone gains VoIP with Fring


Miscellaneous
Interview with BluePhoenix Solutions' Chief Marketing Officer

Virtualization Start-Up to Present at Virtualization Conference & Expo in New York City

ClickSoftware to Automate Scheduling and Mobile Workforce Management for Rogers Cable Communications

Sentrigo Executes on all Fronts in 2007, Priming Database Security Leader for Continued Rapid Growth

BOS Announces Finalizing a Supply Agreement With a Major European Manufacturer in the Aircraft Industry Valued at Approximately $ 1.5 Million, for Supply Over 2 Years


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Once again, IBM gets the top mention in the Israel Innovation 2.0 Israel-related technology headlines. This time resulting from its announcement during the week of April 6 that it plans to purchase data protection and recovery company, FilesX. IBM also announced its usage of water cooling to create an energy efficient supercomputer. It wasn't the only green friendly news though; Jonathan Shapira (author of the Cleantech Investing in Israel blog) and Gene Dolgin, both of Israel Cleantech Ventures, recently created the Cleantech Israel group on Meetup.com and held its first event, which was informative and well-attended by Israelis and Israeli companies trying to break into the field. For more on these, the headlines related to major moves in IT and the full 22 Israel-related technology headlines from this past week, check out the list below.


Cleantech
Inter-ministry disputes hold up solar power plant

Cleantech industry networks in Israel

(Feature) Solar balloons to power remote areas?

Indian and Israeli Industries to Collaborate on Renewable Energy Technologies

Cleantech Group Reports Cleantech Investments Up 42 Percent in 1Q08 From Prior Year, Despite Recent Peak of Ethanol, Wind and Thin Film Solar Waves


M&A
IBM Picks Up Remote Data Backup Help

Amdocs buys Jacobs Rimmell for $45 million in cash

Kodak Completes Acquisition of Intermate A/S

Meter firm buys Israeli technology


Investments
IVC Research Center: Capital Raised by Israeli VCs

Imperva Raises $20m in Financing

Storewize Secures $19M


Information Technology
Eglue launches new CIM suite

Aternity Named ''Cool Vendor'' in IT Operations by Leading Industry Analyst Firm

Cisco leads coming out party for FCoE (Mellanox)

InstallFree promises easy desktop virtualization


In Israel
Toll-free numbers reach cell phones

New regulations expected to drive bank IT spending

Survey: weak dollar set to drive 15,000 technology-based job cuts in Israel


Miscellaneous

OpenSpan and Malam Team Enter Strategic Agreement to Build Enterprise Customer Care Solutions

IBM Uses Water Cooling to Create Energy Efficient Supercomputer

blinkx Draws Users in With aniBoom's Original Animations


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Israel Innovation 2.0's weekly Israel-related technology headlines are back by popular demand. What happened during the past week of March 30, 2008? There wasn't any news about any major investments and M&A (in Israel), but there sure was plenty of news about Israeli solar companies signing deals, Telecom announcing partnerships and Information Security... securing. This past week, it was revealed that sustainable energy stocks are lead by solar, Motorola unveiled a new Israeli-developed device and IncrediMail reported record revenues that increased 72% in 2007. To find out more about these stories and what the rest of this week's 21 Israel-related technology headlines are, check out the list below.


Cleantech
US Army fund seeks Israeli water tech

Solar Leads Sustainable Energy Stocks

Luz II signs deal with California energy giant

Solel to add solar facilities in Spain

'Green our lever to move Israel from 2nd to 1st World'


In Israel
Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May

Economy added over 100,000 new jobs in 2007

Incubators in north and south excel


Telecom
Is you is or is you ain't WiMAX

Motorola unveils new Israeli developed device

Metalink Unveils Operating Expense Reduction Plan

InfoGin and Comverse in technology partnership

Motive and Red Bend Help Operators Overcome Barriers to Mobile and Converged Service Delivery


Information Security
Safend Provides New Data Leakage Prevention Offerings with Latest Release

Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum Sets Course for the Future

Commtouch CEO to Present at America’s Growth Capital Information Security Conference at RSA


Miscellaneous
Elron Highlights AqWise and Galil Medical Developments

IncrediMail Reports Record Revenues, Increasing 72% in 2007

N-trig Hires New Vice President of Research, Development and Engineering

XFONE Completes Acquisition of Story Telecom, Inc.

Olive Software Announces Availability of ActiveMagazine 3.0, Next-Generation Digital Magazine

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

WorldMate Hires Vice President of Marketing and Appoints Former Lastminute.com CEO to Advisory Board
WorldMate, Inc., a provider of travel services for business people on the go, announced that Jonathan Michaeli has joined the company as vice president of marketing and that Brent Hoberman has been appointed to the company’s advisory board. WorldMate, a subsidiary of MobiMate, lets business travelers manage their complete itineraries, including travel arrangements and business meetings. Recent upgrades now provide both travel providers and travelers with the ability to change itineraries directly on their devices through WorldMate Live. 


Jacada to Present At B. Riley & Co. 9th Annual Las Vegas Investor Conference
Paul O'Callaghan, CEO of Jacada Ltd., will present at the B. Riley & Co. 9^th Annual Las Vegas Investor Conference at the Palms Casino Resort on April 4, 2008. According to the website,

"Jacada provides a unified desktop and process optimizations solutions that simplify, automate, and optimize work processes across disparate business systems, elimination inefficiencies and boosting productivity."

Rim Semiconductor Company Acquires Multi-Carrier Communications, Inc. from UTEK Corporation
Rim Semiconductor, a company that develops technology for telecommunications service providers, has acquired Multi-Carrier Communications, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of UTEK. According to the news release,

"The acquisition includes an exclusive worldwide license and research program for a unique signal processing technology for copper line based applications."

According to the Rim website, the company,

"Develops technology for telecommunications companies to deliver demanding new video and data services with lower network costs and offering a better end-user experience."

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Symwave Appoints Yossi Cohen, a Senior Broadcom Veteran, as President and CEO
Seasoned executive, Yossi Cohen, was appointed President and CEO of fabless semiconductor solutions provider, Symwave, Inc. The company primarily supplies high-performance analog/mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the PC, consumer and mobile devices.

According to the news release,

"As the first semiconductor company to implement novel CDR and PLL techniques into standard interface consumer products, the company is able to deliver unprecedented speed and power levels in targeted applications within rapidly growing industries such as consumer electronics and mobile devices."

PicApp Gives Bloggers Access to High-End Copyrighted Images, Free of Charge; Beta Now Open to All Online Publishers
PicScout, a technology enabled service to improve the businesses of both visual assets owners and users, has launched PicApp, a new service that

"gives bloggers and other online publishers access to copyrighted news and creative images free to use alongside their editorial content."

The copyrighted images are licensed from Getty Images, Corbis and other image agencies and will be updated daily. A "non-intrusive" ad will replace the traditional license fees that these web sites usually receive for the use of their images.


Internet analysis start-up Amadesa raises $5.4m
Globes reported that Amadesa Inc., an Internet analysis start-up has raised $5.4 million in its first financing round from Carmel Ventures. According to the article, Amadesa's technology

"provides dynamic content display (via onsite behavioral targeting), product recommendations, shopping cart, and billing form optimization, lead generation data collection optimization, and A/B and multivariate testing capabilities designed to deliver greater returns on marketing dollars spent acquiring website traffic."

The company currently offers both a managed service and self-service solutions.


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Shunra VE Desktop Professional 4.0 Redefines Proactive Application Testing on Emulated Networks to Support the Entire Application Development Lifecycle

Shunra Vertual Enterprise recently announced the release of version 4.0 of its Shunra Virtual Enterprise (VE) Desktip Professional WAN emulation solution. According to the news release,

"VE Desktop Professional 4.0 enables users to test application performance under a variety of existing and potential network conditions, directly from the desktop. This new Windows-based version adds critical customer-driven features, including: integration with HP LoadRunner and QuickTest Professional (QTP) load tools, a thorough application analysis module, and a robust testing and reporting repository."

Invoke Solutions Receives $7 MM in Funding
Real-time researching technologies provide, Invoke Solutions, has raised $7 million in funding from North Atlantic Capital, Bain Capital and BEV Capital. According to the news release,

"The financing comes as Invoke launches its Engage Family of Research Solutions, enabling them to deliver a broader array of quali-quant online and mobile research services to the market research industry. Invoke will use this funding to continue developing its unique enterprise feedback management platform and increase its delivery capabilities across all parts of the company as they expland their customer relationships on a global basis."

Some of Invoke's clients include Fortune 1000 companies such as, Washington Mutual, Dell, Nestle and Microsoft.


Microsoft to Expand Investment in Desktop Virtualization With Acquisition of Kidaro
The big news from the week of March 9th is Microsoft's acquisition of enterprise desktop virtualization solutions provider, Kidaro. According to the news release,

"In combining Kidaro’s virtualization technology with its suite of desktop management tools, known as the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, Microsoft will enable IT professionals to optimize their desktop infrastructure by providing management capabilities for Virtual PCs, streamlining deployments and easing application compatibility issues."

It will also allow desktops to run both Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same computer.



About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

New Mobile Phone Technology from Secure Identity Systems Stops Card Fraud Cold
Israel-based Secure Identity Systems has announced that its new technology, mConfirm, "thwarts credit and debit card fraud, and potentially stops ID thieves in the act," by using "any mobile phone to match the location of a consumer and their payment card," analyzing it and acting on unusual results. IT professionals dealing with risk management should look into using mConfirm software as an additional preventative method against customer fraud. The service is also offered to individuals interested in taking preventative steps for their personal accounts.

XFONE, Inc, Successfully Closes Acquisition of NTS Communications
In a letter to company shareholders, XFONE, Inc., announced that it has successfully closed its acquisition of NTS Communications. XFONE, INC., which has operations in Israel,

Offers a wide range of services, including: local, long distance and international telephony services; prepaid and postpaid calling cards; cellular services; Internet services; messaging services (Email/Fax Broadcast, Email2Fax and Cyber-Number); and reselling opportunities.

New Connect One Solutions Internet-Enable Machine-to-Machine Connectivity for Legacy Devices

Connect One, a device networking solutions provider, has made available "two new affordable external devices servers for secure machine-to-machine (M2M) IP connectivity." The two devices, the Secure iLAN and Secure iWiFi, remove the need to have technicians work on-site to monitor devices. Instead, devices can be "remotely monitored and configured over IP networks in a completely secure manner from a home, office or on the road."


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Can this week's edition of Israeli technology news top the excitement over the news of IBM's acquisition of XIV in last week's edition? Well, let's see. This past week a 'green tax' was presented to the Israeli government and the Israeli companies chosen to participate in the 2008 Israel Web Tour 2.0 were announced. Reports on the employment in Israel's Hi-Tech sector last year showed that it continues to grow and the trend of Israeli investments in Poland is becoming ever-more common. You can find the links to these stories and this week's full 20 Israel-related technology headlines below.

Cleantech:
Bar-On presents 'green tax' to gov't

Rosy outlook for green

2007 energy tech VC totals: First look (Project Better Place)

Investments and M&A:
Ampal signs MoU to invest millions of dollars in sugarcane ethanol production

Israeli investors, businesses are flocking to Poland

IBM to more than double Israeli investments

Telecom:
Ericsson to supply mobile TV solution to Cellcom Israel

WiMax Networks Draw International Interest

International:
Will Foreign Stocks Start to Disappoint?

Internet to outperform broader market in 2008: Piper Jaffray, Needham

Israel Web Tour 2.0 - The Companies

Storage Projects Rise in Importance

Information Technology:
RIT Technologies to Demonstrate Full Suite of Intelligent Infrastructure Management & Structured Cabling Solutions at BICSI 2008

Spam at 96 percent peak level of all email, Commtouch announces

LIVE BLOGGING - IDC Press Conference Media and IT Trends 2007 - 2008

Miscellaneous:
Israeli expert in P2P Oversi wins important contract with True Internet

Interview with Pointer Telocation’s Chairman

Silicon Wadi 2.0

Israel: Tech Workers Wanted

The eyes in the sky are a boon to sports fans