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.

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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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Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) out with earnings late last night.  Globes reports this morning that Copazone sales rose 29% year over year while overall sales increased 18% over 2007.  Reporting $2.82 billion over analysts’ expectations of $2.68, TEVA beat on the top line.  TEVA also beat with $.65 on EPS.  According to Globes, “As of July 23, 2008, Teva had 149 product applications awaiting final FDA approval, including 41 tentative approvals.”

Bank of Israel raises interest rates to 4%.  Read more.

Zoran (ZRAN) reported disappointing earnings last night.  Transcript here.

Just eight months after its launch, Sheldon Adelson’s free Hebrew daily, Yisrael Hayom, has become the second most widely circulated newspaper in Israel, edging out Maariv.

Scopus Video (SCOP) moves into black and according to the company, things look even better in the second half of 2008.

Here’s an interesting interview with VC Cafe’s Eze Vidra pitting Israel against Sand Hill Road.

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Has the massive shekel run finally come to an end?  Deutsche Bank thinks so.  Globes reports today that DB analysts think that the recently-announced 4-fold increase of dollar purchases (up to $100 million/day) by the Bank of Israel may be the proverbial top for the Israeli shekel, which has enjoyed a huge run against most of the world’s top currencies over the past couple of years.  We’ve written voluminously on the shekel’s rise that’s even prompted certain Israeli hi-tech firms to offshore engineering work to the U.S. Globes also recently reported that wages of senior Israeli high tech managers are beginning to come under pressure.

With gas station managers in the U.S. rumaging through storage units due to a shortage of ‘4’s’ to display on their pumps, I wonder if Israeli gas station managers are having the same problem with ‘8’s’?  Brutal.

The large multinational tech firms (and now consumer products firms) continue to use Israel as a R&D hub.  Interesting historical view/story of Sun Microsystems Israel here.  It’s part of a larger series done by Ayelet Noff on Israeli High Tech. Om Malik also shared his thoughts on a recent trip to Israel for the Israel 2008 conference here. VC Cafe’s Eze Vidra has a good article about Israeli firms receiving funding but fighting for survival here.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange mulls change in market hours here.

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The Israeli trade deficit continued to widen in June as a strong Shekel and the cost of fuel imports rose more than the growth in exports. As reported in the Jpost, “The deficit, excluding diamonds, ships and aircraft, increased to a seasonally adjusted $1.27 billion from $1.04b. a year ago, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in a preliminary report Sunday.” I have never thought trade balances mean a whole lot. So what if you run a trade deficit? As colleague Zack ‘check out our new website redesign‘ Miller said to me over a cup of coffee, ” Isn’t it obvious that Israel will become a net importer, as the country becomes wealthier?” Giddy up!

Microsoft (MSFT) is at it again. The Redmond based software giant has agreed to purchase another Israeli company. This time it’s data quality start-up Zoomix. According to unnamed sources in Globes, purchase price is between $20-30 million. Hey Softie, can you spare a million or two?

Hey, anyone know what’s going on at Fundtech (FNDT)? The stock has surged over the last month by more than 15% on heavy volume, in the face of strong headwinds provided by the general market. Fundtech, which provides financial transaction processing software solutions for financial institutions all over the world, has managed to continue to sign deals even as IT spending in the financial sector remains sluggish.

Part of the puzzle as to the dramatic fall in shares of BluePhoenix (BPHX) has been revealed (aside from declining revenues, foggy outlook…). It turns out that US investment group Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. sold off most of their holdings in the company. Globes reports that according to SEC filings, GGHC held 354,000 BluePhoenix shares at the end of June down from more than 2.2 million shares held at the end of Q1 ‘08. That’s a huge amount of stock hitting the market for such a thinly traded share.

Aaron Katsman, IsraelNewsletter.com

Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in FNDT, BPHX. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 7/14/08.

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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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