Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com

While we still are awaiting a pick-up of M&A with publicly traded Israeli stocks, another hot Israeli start-up was acquired today. eBay’s(EBAY) subsidiary PayPal, the leader in on-line payments, has agreed to pay $169 million for FraudSciences, a company which develops fraud detection and protection products.

According to the press release, “Fraud Sciences’risk tools and analytics are expected to enhance eBay and PayPal’s proprietary fraud management systems and accelerate the development of next generation fraud detection tools.

The acquisition of Fraud Sciences fits into eBay’s recently announced plans to significantly improve trust and safety across its sites in 2008. “Integrating Fraud Sciences’risk tools with PayPal’s sophisticated fraud management system should allow us to be even more effective in protecting eBay and PayPal’s hundreds of millions of customers around the world,” said Scott Thompson, President of PayPal.

This acquisition highlights Israel’s technologicalsuperiority in the security and fraud sector, and that big global firms are turning to Israel to provide technological solutions, instead of developing the solutions internally. Israeli firms should continue to benefit from this move to R&D outsourcing, and as soon as we get some stability in the public markets, I would expect to see some very big deals concerning Israeli companies.

Disclosure: Author’s has no position in any stock mentioned as of 1/28/08.

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.

Share with others: