While one rock star, Barack Obama, gets ready to accept his party’s nomination for president in front of 75,000 screaming fans at a football stadium in Denver, a real rock star, Paul McCartney, has a greed to a performance in Tel Aviv. McCartney will make a pretty penny for the gig. According to a report in Globes:  “The cost of bringing ex-Beatle McCartney to Israel will reach NIS 30 million (about $8.5 million), half of which will go to McCartney and his promoters, while the other half will cover production costs. At a price of NIS 1,500 ($425) for a front row ticket and NIS 500 ($142) for a place on the park itself, the promoters will have to sell 50,000 tickets only to cover the cost.”

They are expecting over 70,000 people to show up. Of course this is without taking into account any sponsorship money.

McCartney will pull in over $4 million for the trip. While his recent personal issues would indicate ‘you can’t buy me love’, $4 million for a couple of hours can sure go a long way.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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Your cell phone bills may start to get cheaper. Why? Well just like traditional fixed land-line prices dropped to virtually nothing due to new technology, most notably Voice Over IP (VOIP), the same thing may very well happen to your cell phone as well. An Israeli hi-tech start-up, Spikko ltd. is set to launch a free cellular telephone service for handsets with at least 3G capabilities.

According to a report in Globes: “Each subscriber receives the company’s SpikkoPhone software and an Israeli telephone number, which is used to make calls and accumulate airtime, allowing for the placing of calls for free anywhere in the world. The service also offers video and chat services, and will soon also offer e-mail and instant messaging.”

Currently it’s available in Israel only, but the company is working on making the service available internationally. The company estimates that customers will save between 40-80% off existing bills.

It will take time for cellular prices to drop down to levels that we pay with our landlines. It’s not something that will happen overnight, but with companies like Spikko, and others trying to do similar things, I have a hunch that cellphone companies better figure out other revenue streams, like content and other value added services, because it does stand to reason that we will continue to see price erosion on airtime charges.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com

Tomorrow is my daughter’s 7th birthday, so as is customary here at IOI, I will highlight a birthday stock to use as a gift for her. I must note that my wife has been racking her brains as to what present we should get, and she, not surprisingly, did a great job of getting a gift that we think our 7 year old will love. For full disclosure, my contribution consisted of a few grunts, when my wife asked my opinion of certain possibilities.

Because she is turning 7, why not look at a stock that is trading in that range. Well for starters we have Orckit Communications(ORCT). They develop telecommunication equipment that enables transmission of broadband services. They are a classic old-school Israeli company that has cutting edge technology, but virtually no one to buy it. They have one real customer, KDDI in Japan, and we have been hearing for a few years now about another customer that is about to make a purchase. Unfortunately, outside of a small deal with Deutsche Telecom(DT), where we have yet to see much in the way of revenue, it’s the same story quarter after quarter. Orckit may be a good stock to get my mother in law for mother’s day, but doesn’t make the grade for my oldest child.

The stock that we will purchase for her is Ulticom(ULCM.pk). They provide service essential signaling solutions for wireless, wireline, and Internet communications. One of our favorites, Comverse Technology(CMVT.pk) owns a huge stake in the company, and as we have written, we are looking for Comverse to try and sell off Ulticom. Comverse is trying to strealine their business, and create shareholder value. Hopefully, a sale of Ulticom should fetch a nice premium.

Happy birthday sweety, and I hope that you are blessed with a year filled with health and happiness. 

Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in CMVT.pk and ULCM.pk. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 5/9/08.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com

Shares of Audiocodes (AUDC), an Israeli provider of Voice over IP (VOIP) technology, are surging on the heels of a strong earnings report. The company reported record earnings, an indicated strong growth for the remainder of this year as well as for 2009.

This small VOIP company has long been overlooked by the financial community, but the fundamentals make this an interesting play for long-term investors.

The company has a PEG of less than 0.6, and has over $137 million in cash and cash equivalents. Audiocodes has a market-cap of $177, which means that it’s trading at a discount to revenues as well. Throw in a 4,000,000 share buyback and this could be a sleeper. 

Investors should be aware that for the last 3.5 years, shares in Audiocodes have gone in just one direction, straight down. With that being said, today’s report, potentially, maybe the jump-start needed to break the downward spiral, and be the catalyst to help propel shares going forward. 

Disclosure: Author’s fund has no position in AUDC, fund has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 4/30/08.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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