CTech's Weekly Israeli Tech News Roundup

Cisco is looking to sell video-software unit NDS at a steep discount. Six years after shelling out $5 billion for NDS, Cisco is now putting a $1 billion price tag on the Jerusalem-based business, which mainly develops software for the pay-TV industry. Read more

  

Head of Microsoft’s startup outreach programs to step down. After six years of leading Microsoft's startup outreach programs and building the company’s global startup accelerators program, general manager of Microsoft for Startups Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld is stepping down and moving to a yet unspecified position at the company. Read more

 

 

Israel’s government and tech Industry brace for U.S. tax reform impact. Last week, representatives of some of the largest tech and industrial companies operating in Israel met with Israeli government officials to deliberate the U.S. tax reform. The government is expected to lobby for the country’s exclusion from the BEAT tax, introduced as part of the reform. Read more

Fewer Israeli startups raised more money in 2017. While investments in Israeli companies totaled $5.24 billion in 2017, up 9% from 2016, the number of deals dropped from 673 to 620. Read more

Starboard pushing to replace the entire board of directors at Mellanox. The activist investor dispatched a letter to the shareholders of Mellanox, a Nasdaq-listed communications chipmaker, announcing a fight to switch out all nine members of the board. Read more

Review of refundable Sirin Labs tokens points to six major transactions. Calcalist took a closer look at the Sirin Labs’ ICO. Keep an eye on the six major transactions totaling nearly $50 million that were made under Sirin’s unique 60-day refund policy. Read more

Microsoft taps cloud security executive as new head of research in Israel. Marking a clear direction for its efforts, on Thursday Microsoft announced the appointment of a cloud security executive Assaf Rappaport as its new head of research in Israel. Mr. Rappaport joined Microsoft in 2015 after it bought the security startup he co-founded and led. Read more

A startup that develops tow truck satellites signed a $100 million deal. Israel-based aerospace company Effective Space develops “Space Drones” that provide life-extending and re-positioning services to satellites in-orbit. As part of a new deal with an unnamed satellite operator, the company plans to launch of these satellites by 2020. Read more

Activist fund Elliott pushes to overhaul board of Israel's biggest telecom provider. The hedge fund called for sweeping corporate governance changes at Israeli telecommunication provider Bezeq, and for the immediate resignation of all company directors implicated in an Israeli securities investigation. Read more

  

Scientist’s ex-wife joins legal melee over Kite Pharma windfall. In August, Gilead Sciences announced it will acquire Kite Pharma for $11.9 billion. The announcement triggered a legal battle for royalties between two Israeli immunologists who were pivotal to the development of Kite Pharma's breakthrough anti-cancer treatment. Now, the ex-wife of one of the scientists is joining the legal melee. Read more

Waze finds a path back to Iran, a report says. On Monday Iranian news site Tasnim News reported on Twitter that an Iranian ban on the Google-owned mobile navigation app had been lifted. Use of the Israeli-developed app was blocked in the country in March, reinstated in September and blocked again in October. Read more