Business is Good

January 2, 2008 at 3:10 pm | In Business & Finance |

Two bits of news this week that speak to the growing role of Israel in today’s global economy, mixing it up (as usual) with foreign business partners:

They’re buying us:
IBM has paid a reported $300-350 million to acquire XIV, a storage technology firm based in Tel Aviv. IBM picked up XIV to enhance “its position in emerging storage opportunities such as Web 2.0 applications, digital archives and digital information.” And it’s not as if IBM is a newcomer - they’ve been running operations in Israel since 1949.

And we’re buying them:
Israel Discount Bank has announced it will be purchasing an 11% stake in the Dutch firm Kardan Financial Services to “enable the bank to play a role in the financing sector in Eastern Europe through a strategic partner.”

Not bad for a country of 7.2 million that started out 59 years ago growing oranges.

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I heard about that IBM deal over at TechCrunch. Ironically they have been featuring more and more startups either operating out of Israel, or founded within the country (which is starting to catch some people’s attention).

As you said it best, not bad for a country that started out growing oranges…juicy ones at that.

Comment by Darnell Clayton — January 4, 2008
i want a settler of the siania desert to contact me so i can send them some flowers to plant for me,and maybe i can send some trees ,i want to help israel but i do not have a lot of money,please help me ,so i can help israel,anybody,asap,sincerly tim sherrill

Comment by tim sherrill — January 8, 2008