As we wrote last week, numerous business and political bigwigs were in Israel for Shimon Peres’s conference celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday. While we sat in on various sessions and working groups, given our bent for Israeli technology, we really enjoyed a session dedicated to the future of the Internet attended by the pioneers of modern media, including Sergey Brin, Google’s (GOOG) founder, and Rupert Murdoch, News Corp (NWS) founder. Now, it looks like Brin is getting closer to Israel as he eyes specific deals with leading technology players in fields that might surprise you. (Continue »)

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012.Smile (SMLC): “The firm noted that revenue decline reflects a significant year-over-year decline in revenues from hubbing services and a 14% year-over-year decline in the average shekel-dollar exchange rate.” (see article here). Earnings release here. See what IOI has written about SMLC and why some asset managers think it’s cheap.

Voltaire (VOLT): Stock up over 25% this week. Company reported earnings the market liked yesterday. Revenues are up, earnings are up, and margins up a lot. Earnings release here.

Answers.com (ANSW): Stock down big this week off of earnings expectations. They didn’t look too good. Earnings release here. Answers took a $2.0M charge on terminating the Dictionary.com acquisition. Traffic was down sequentially to Answers.com while WikiAnswers seems to be chugging along nicely.

Zoran (ZRAN): IOI Portfolio Member Zoran gets an upgrade from PiperJaffray. The banking firm “predicts Zoran’s growth will bottom out in the second quarter and then rebound as consumers transition to high-definition DVD players and sales of its chips and other products climb.” See our coverage of the firm here.

Ormat (ORA): Israeli geothermal player, Ormat, sells 3M shares this week in a block trade to Lehman Brothers.

NICE (NICE): Anti-rogue trader product unveiled by Israeli security play, NICE.  NICE’s Actimize unit is a leader in employee fraud detection and trading surveillance systems at large global firms and is rumored to have detected the massive fraud at Societe Generale.  See what we wrote about NICE recently. NICE reports on May 14th.

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It’s been a busy week for Israel investors. For those subscribers to our new subscription newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor, they’ve seen one portfolio company, Gilat Networks (GILT), announce an acquisition for a premium. While we hate to brag and say “we told you so”, well, we told you so. Read more about how merger arbitrage investors might look at this deal.

We saw CFO musical chairs this week with the Gilat CFO moving over and joining another portfolio holding, Check Point Software (CHKP). While we’re on the topic of Check Point, we wrote recently about a Barron’s article that mentioned that Check Point could be an acquisition candidate. We’ve hear your remarks and invite you to give your opinion. Will donkeys fly before this happens or for the right price, will Check Point give it up. You make the call.

Forbes sees value in Israel real estate and has ranked it the top “up and coming” location globally. The financial publication sees 2008 as a very tough market for real estate but sees Israel as a bright spot for global investors

We also saw the first introduction of a true Israel ETF (ESI). You can read our run-down of what we think of the iShares product here.

IOI Portfolio company and Israel geothermal, clean energy play, Ormat (ORA), lands another Nevada deal.

The US Army is looking to invest in Israel water technology. Seemingly, the US Army invests sizable amounts in private equity and one of its funds is on the prowl looking to invest in Israel water technology companies. Read more.

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