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 didn't see any new Israel-related IBM announcements. It did, however, see questions raised about the real potential of Project Better Place's electric cars and the release of the latest version of Unisfair's Virtual Events. Along the way, Red Bend Software raised $10 million and SanDisk announced a new 4-gigabyte USB flash drive that uses user-driven data management company, BeInSync. Check Point and Tel-Aviv University announced their plans to establish a new academic research institute for the study of information security. To find out more about these stories and what the rest of this week's 17 Israel-related technology headlines are, check out the list below.


Cleantech
SunHopes – Balloon Based Solar Energy

Who's Driving the Hydrogen Highway?

Tel Aviv University displays its cleantech potential [VIDEO]


M&A and Investments
Mobile software management provider Red Bend secured $10 million

The Golden Age of Israeli Startups: Mergers and Acquisitions (Part III)

VC survey: Money still flowing to green and biotech

Israel venture capital is nervous about US trends

Web Hosting and Management Services Group, TriZetto, to be Acquired by Apax


Information Technology
A Four-Gigabyte Thumb Drive With Two Safety Nets

Mellanox Announces ConnectX 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN on Motherboard Design Wins Across Supermicro’s Server Products

Gizmox widens Microsoft collaboration

Unisfair Releases Version 2.0 of Virtual Events

Check Point and Tel-Aviv University to Establish a New Academic Research Institute for the Study of Information Security


Miscellaneous
Startup aims to replace NOR flash in mobile devices

SanDisk R&D boss discusses memory card business

Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech Conference 2008 Hits the Road

PineApp Named ‘Product of the Year’ Finalist for AeA High-Tech Innovation Awards

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.

Globes is reporting that in the next 24 hours, IBM is expected to officially announce its purchase of Diligient Technologies, an enterprise data storage and deduplication solutions provider, for an estimated $200 million. Here are some quick facts from the Globes article regarding the deal:

• Diligent Technologies is IBM's third acquisition in Israel so far this year (after XIV in January and FilesX Ltd. last week).
• Diligent Technologies is a spinoff from EMC Israel, which still owns a 20% share in Diligent.
• Diligent was co-founded in 2002 by current CEO, Doron Kempel and data storage legend, Moshe Yanai (currently the XIV chairman and an IBM employee).

For more details, check out the Globes article and my entry on the rumor from a few weeks ago.


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.