Is the online financial trading industry part of Israeli high-tech?

My article regarding the online trading financial arena  has just been published in the IVC annual high-tech handbook. http://www.barlaw.co.il/files/45907783cc0605368396bb029b9b4624/HT_Internet_BarneaArticle.pdf

Israeli Startup Success Report 1999-2014

An interesting report   by IVC Research Center and REVERSEXITregarding Israeli Startup performance between 1999-2014, shows that only 4 of 500 Startups are successful and growing independently.

More interesting details inside: http://www.ivc-online.com/Research-Center/IVC-Publications/IVC-Surveys/Startup-Report

Since the beginning of 2015 Companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have gone public faster than in any other year on record, with $10.2 billion raised so far.

According to research by DEALOGIC, a real-time analytics platform used by Investment banks, this year's trend is largely the result of several very big ticket European offerings launched in January and in the first weeks of February. 

According to Dealogic, IPOs accounted for 33 percent of equity capital market volumes in EMEA countries in 2015 so far, exceeded only in 1995 when this ratio was 35 percent of equity deal volumes in EMEA.

I hope that this positive trend will continue as the year progress. 

The Startup Nation can already claim an remarkable start in 2015 -  In just the last week, $910M was raised through acquisitions, including a new Amazon R&D center, and also  Dropbox and Alibaba are on their way to Israel

  

The presence of R & D centers of multinational companies in Israel is extremely important to economic output for the country in general and high-tech industry in particular. R&D centers are a source of employment for thousands of people. Employees are exposed to international processes and practices which create a symbiotic relationship with Israel’s high-tech industry.

We must continue to encourage international companies operating in Israel and ensure an environment which will enable them to continue to operate here.

An article i wrote few weeks ago regarding the R&D centers in israel: http://www.barlaw.co.il/news/threats-foreign-rd-centers-startup-nation-2015-adv-micky-barnea

בפתח השנה החדשה נתבקשתי לספר על תפקידם של מרכזי פיתוח זרים בישראל. דעתי היא כי מרכזי הפיתוח הזרים -דוגמת אפל, מייקרוסופט ופייסבוק - הם מרכיב חיוני באומת הסטארטאפ שלנ. שנת 2015 התחילה ובפתחה אנו ניצבים בתקופת אי וודאות- מערכת הבחירות הקרבה, השינויים הפוליטיים במדינות ערב הגובלות עימנו, והמהלכים השונים שנוקטת הראשות הפלסטינית- כל זה עלול להביא לשינוי דרמטי במגמת פעילותם של מרכזי פיתוח של חברות ההייטק הזרות בישראל. להמשך קריאת המאמר:
http://www.ivc-online.com/Research-Center/News-PR/News-Archive?nid=2C224D35-A091-E411-B8A7-80C16E7D3630

A few days ago, i was moderator pf the hi-tech panel at Israel's 2nd Foreign Law Firms Conference- a conference of the Tel Aviv District of the Israel Bar Association and Robus Legal Marketing Israel. This is what i said about Israel's Hi-tech industry:

Our panel  is focused on the legal aspects of the Israeli high-tech sector.

I don't think there is any other segment of the Israeli economy (and even society) that had such a profound impact on the Israeli commercial legal practice of the last decades.

The evolution of the Israeli high-tech sector since the early 90's, is mirrored in the development of the Israeli legal practice.

We live now in an age where the Israeli high-tech is well established, with over 250 R&D centres of international companies (many of whom following acquisitions of home grown companies), with a steady flow of Israeli companies joining Nasdaq and other international public markets, and with a healthy crop of Israeli tech companies reaching maturity in a broad scope of areas - medical devices, security, biotech, hardware, and on line applications, just to name a few.

In parallel, we have a strong legal community, trained and qualified in international standards, offering the full scope of legal services, required to service the local tech companies in all their needs, and to provide international companies the local support when they come over to Israel to acquire, or develop, a local foothold.

However, the scene was different just shy of 20 years ago.

We can choose different milestones, but I wish to turn to one in specific.

It was November 5, 1995 (a day after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin) that the 1^st Israeli technology conference was held at the Hilton Hotel. The Israeli high-tech was still a fledgling, making venture capital investments were known to a select few, and the largest law firm in Israel had just over 30 lawyers.

We have gone a long way since then – crossed the burst of the bubble, the Optical Switching craze, and the Lehman crisis.

Israeli law firms and the local legal market had also developed.

I venture to say that had it not been for Israeli high-tech, perhaps today's conference would not have happened. The Israeli high-tech fuels the Israeli economy and the international interest in our small country.

Hence, the Start-Up Nation.

But where do we go from here?

Michael Barnea - Managing Partner

Michael Barnea is founder and managing partner at Barnea & Co. a leading Israeli commercial law firm. Barnea offers a full range of legal services to Israeli companies engaged with overseas businesses and corporations and to international companies that carry out business activities in Israel.

Barnea specializes in the multiple stages of business and corporate development, from the earliest phase, through growth, on to expansion, funding - whether from public or private sources - to the mergers and acquisitions and other exit scenarios.

Michael Barnea has experience in the high tech sector, including Information Technology, communications and life sciences and possesses specialist knowledge of issues relating to intellectual property, including R & D projects, cross-border joint developments and manufacturing, licensing, distribution and sale of hardware, software and medical devices.

Michael Barnea’s expertise covers the following fields:
• Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions
• Capital Markets & Securities
• Technology
• Kibbutzim Sector

Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions

Michael Barnea has extensive knowledge on the different phases of business development, in particular on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions involving Israeli companies – both private and public. Barnea’s work on M&A transactions includes mergers between Israeli companies, acquisitions by Israeli companies of foreign jurisdiction corporations and acquisition by international companies of Israeli entities.

Capital Markets & Securities

Michael Barnea specializes in consulting on matters relating to Israeli public companies whose securities are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, as well as in the United States and on the London Stock Exchange. The consulting provided by Barnea in this area includes adivising on primary and secondary offerings, complex public com[any transactions, as well as ongoing compliance and reporting.

Technology

Michael Barnea is advising technology companies on the legal aspects of every stage of their development – from initiation and incorporation, through initial and subsequent fundraising (from various sources), regulatory, marketing, sales, and exit opportunities. In this area Adv. Barnea also advises on intellectual property development and licensing and on complex employment issues, including option and bonus incentive plans.

Kibbutzim Sector

Michael Barnea provides legal counsel on a whole range of issues specific to the Israeli kibbutzim sector, including leading industrial and technological enterprises of Kibbutzim.