Yadata was part of Giza’s Ofek seed program and the investment was made in 2007. YaData’s technology will enable Microsoft to provide its advertisers with richer targeting capabilities so they can connect with their audience in more efficient and engaging ways, at the same time providing its customers with more relevant and focused advertisements. The YaData team will join Microsoft's Israel R&D center in Herzliya and YaData’s solutions will be deployed through Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group.

Xeround Sound is a distributed data management system specifically tuned for subscriber-centric and real-time transactions found in next generation networks (NGN) and business support systems (BSS). It is the only solution of its kind to deliver massive and linear scalability, multi-site support with global data distribution and virtualization, continuous availability, high responsiveness, and guaranteed data integrity with native support for both Structured Query Language (SQL) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) interfaces. Xeround Sound is tuned for today’s leading commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware solutions and requires minimal administration, resulting in dramatic improvements in total cost of ownership.

"Xeround Sound addresses key data management challenges found in today’s mostly heterogeneous networks and dramatically reduces the cost of modeling, maintaining and extending subscriber data,” said Charlotte Yarkoni, chief executive officer of Xeround. “Our innovative distributed technology enables a single, non-partitioned database image with zero partition management required. The NDB benchmark results prove that Xeround Sound delivers unlimited scalability, both in capacity and throughput, while maintaining guaranteed service levels.”

The consideration comprises of approximately 80% paid in cash and approximately 20% by allocating NICE ordinary shares. The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and is anticipated to close towards the end of the third quarter of 2007.

“Bringing together Actimize’s and NICE’s solutions establishes NICE as an enterprise-wide analytics powerhouse. Our combined solution constitutes a technology breakthrough in processing, analyzing, and cross-referencing information from customer transactions and interactions. This is the only combination in the world, which for the first time will be able to take millions and millions of transactions and interactions, and handle huge masses of data, comprising a full view of the customer touch points with the organization,” said Haim Shani, Chief Executive Officer of NICE. “Actimize’s transaction analytics and risk management solutions along with NICE’s interaction analytics and proven leadership in the compliance market changes the competitive landscape in the financial services industry, as well as in the enterprise and security markets in which we operate.”

As a leader in the financial services market, NICE solutions today capture and analyze hundreds of millions of voice, web, email and other interactions daily, at customers including the world’s top banks, brokerages, and thousands of financial institutions worldwide, which seek to improve compliance, enterprise performance, and customer loyalty. Actimize solutions are analyzing today close to one billion transactions daily at the world’s top banks and brokerage firms, which are seeking to improve compliance, fraud prevention, and anti-money laundering. Leveraging on these synergies, NICE and Actimize will focus initially on the financial services industry to offer the first solution in the world which provides real-time transaction and interaction analytics.

Whether a customer calls a financial contact center, accesses the enterprise web site, corresponds through email, or makes an ATM withdrawal, the combination of NICE and Actimize will enable financial institutions and enterprises to receive real-time alerts on compliance, fraud and other anomalies, dramatically improving the organization’s business performance¬ and risk management capabilities.

Furthermore, NICE will expand its business through this combination to provide a more complete, comprehensive and accurate picture of customer behavior in other verticals within the enterprise and security markets; addressing additional critical issues such as customer loyalty and retention, and market intelligence. NICE also expects to leverage this combination for additional national security applications.

Actimize will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary following completion of the transaction with its current management team remaining in place. David Sosna will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer, reporting directly to Haim Shani, Chief Executive Officer of NICE.

"Joining NICE is an important step in Actimize’s growth and business strategy,” said David Sosna, Chief Executive Officer of Actimize. “Being a part of NICE will enable us to offer our customers a solution which can provide them with unmatched capabilities in addressing their risk management challenges. Removing major middleware barriers and gaining direct access to NICE’s insights from unstructured, multimedia data together with our transactional expertise constitutes the most complete, accurate, and timely view of customer behavior. Our customers are positioned, like never before, to meet their compliance needs and reduce fraud in a faster and easier manner.”

”We are looking forward to having the Actimize team join us. This is a great company, with an impressive talent pool, run by a top-notch management team,” added Haim Shani, Chief Executive Officer of NICE. This strategic acquisition marks another milestone in our innovative strategy of expanding our foothold in the enterprise software market, by creating a new and innovative company in the world. We are excited about the many and varied opportunities presented by this move, and expect that it will contribute to NICE’s growth and profitability.”

Transaction Details

Under the terms of the agreement, NICE would acquire Actimize for a total consideration of approximately $280 million. The consideration comprises of $227 million paid in cash and an allocation of approximately 1.5 million NICE ordinary shares. In addition, unvested stock options and restricted shares will be assumed by NICE and exchanged for NICE stock options. The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and is anticipated to close towards the end of the third quarter of 2007.

BioLineRx also announced the conversion to equity of a US $9 million convertible loan it received last month from Pan Atlantic Bank and Trust Limited (part of the Friedberg Group).

Clal Finance Underwriting and Leader Capital Markets led the public offering, which included previous investors; Giza Venture Capital, Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pitango Venture Capital, and Hadasit. Prior to the IPO, BioLineRx’s shareholders invested approximately $32 million in the company. Giza Venture Capital is the largest shareholder in the company.

Morris C. Laster, MD, CEO of BioLineRx. Stated that, "The company expects to apply this significant capital to the accelerated development of our therapeutic pipeline that currently consists of 10 drug candidates, 3 of which are in clinical studies or are about to enter the clinic. In the coming year, we plan to initiate Phase 2 clinical trials of BL-1020, for the treatment of schizophrenia, and a Phase 1/2 study for BL-1040, for the treatment of damaged heart tissue following myocardial infarction. BiolineRx will also continue to develop and accelerate the remainder of our pipeline and continuously screen and in-license promising new drug candidates.”

"Through the acquisition of ProSight and Pertmaster, we have created the industry’s first, truly end-to-end project and portfolio management solution,” said Joel Koppelman, CEO of Primavera. “We are the only company in the world that can help organizations choose the projects they need to support a business strategy, and then help them execute on those projects successfully. What’s more, we are the only company that can present customers with both a realistic range of the most likely outcomes for a portfolio of projects and a set of options to mitigate those risks."

ProSight’s solutions, which help customers analyze and plan their project and portfolio investments, will be marketed as Primavera ProSight, a stand-alone product that integrates with the rest of Primavera’s solutions. Primavera will retain all of ProSight’s offices, including its headquarters in Portland, Ore., its Federal office in Crystal City, Va., and its development office in Jerusalem, Israel.

"By joining with Primavera, our customers will now have access to Primavera’s world-class solutions to plan, execute on and control projects beyond the initial portfolio analysis,” said John Cimral, CEO of ProSight. “Primavera’s well-known commitment to superior service and support will certainly benefit ProSight’s customers."

This is in addition to the $10 million raised in its first round in 2001. This round will accelerate Iamba’s product development and allow the company to expand its marketing programs.

Iamba, established six years ago, is developing components and system solutions for the FTTP market based on GPON technology. Iamba’s advanced products facilitate multi-gigabyte, triple-play broadband telecom services, between service providers’ central offices and their customers. Iamba has signed cooperation agreements with leading system suppliers, and is expecting initial revenues from its business partners starting this year.

Ori Israely, a Managing Director at Giza, said: “Our current investment in Iamba is in line with our strategy to continue supporting Israeli companies with a very high growth potential, serving global markets”. Moshe Nattiv, the company’s President and CEO since January 2005 said: “The Iamba team is very proud of closing this round of financing with Giza, Pitango and Cedar, three top-notch venture funds. Clearly, Iamba’s accomplishments on the technology and on the business development fronts have made it a very attractive target for VC investment. Iamba is now well positioned to deliver its leadership, next-generation, end-to-end FTTP/GPON solutions, at the system and the silicon level, to its telecom partners worldwide.

www.iamba.com

In the largest ever buy-out of an Israeli company, American investor Warren Buffett has paid $4 billion for an 80 percent stake in Iscar Metalworking Cos., an industry leader in metal-cutting tools owned by the Wertheimer family. "We are investing $4 billion in an amazing band of people from Israel," said Buffett.

Buffett, considered the second wealthiest man in the world after Microsoft's Bill Gates, said he intended to visit Israel later this year, not only to visit Iscar headquarters, but also to see if there were "any other pearls out there."

The purchase is the largest Buffett has ever made outside the United States. He said "I believe in the Israeli market and the Israeli economy and I think that this is a good time to invest in it."

Iscar, one of the world's largest (by sales) manufacturers of carbide industrial-cutting tools, which are used by carmakers like GM and Ford, is the first business Buffett's investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway - which has a market capitalization of $135b. - has purchased outside the US. The deal makes the Wertheimer family the wealthiest family in Israel.

Buffett, chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said that "in another five or ten years, we'll look back and understand that what we declared here is one of the most significant things Berkshire Hathaway has ever done. Iscar will be a very large and important company."

Asked what he intended to do with management after acquiring the company, Buffett responded, "We'll let them be. This is why we bought the company. At Berkshire we are 16 people in total, even though the companies in our investment portfolio employ 200,000 people. Our job is only to choose the best players, and usually, like in Iscar's case, the players are there when we buy the companies. I wouldn't dream of changing Iscar's management make-up."

Iscar is a dynamic full line supplier of precision carbide metal working tools, producing a wide range of carbide inserts, carbide end mills and cutting tools covering most metal cutting applications. Iscar also provides metal working solutions in both engineering and manufacturing to major industries throughout the world.

Many innovative products, designed specially according to customer requirements, have made ISCAR a world leader in manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace and die & mold production. Unique and innovative metal cutting tools cover applications including cut-off, face grooving and other turning applications, milling, drilling, boring, threading and operations requiring solid carbide inserts and tools. The manufacturing facilities are divided by function and purpose. Separate buildings produce and press carbide powders.

The news of the acquisition has caused waves of excitement in both the business and political realm in Israel.

"This is major news and a great present for the State of Israel. We salute you, both personally and on behalf of the entire State of Israel. This sale will provide great momentum to the Israeli economy and I am certain that it will lead to other economic benefits," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Iscar's Chairman of the Board Eitan Wertheimer.

Olmert added at the beginning of Sunday's cabinet meeting that "this is not just another deal for the Israeli economy, this is one of the biggest investors in the world, who has never invested outside the US before. He represents tens of thousands of investors whose investments depend on his decisions. His decision to invest in an Israeli company, in a country that he has never visited or seen its factories, solely on the basis of its record and on professional opinions attests - first and foremost - to great confidence in the Israeli economy and in full trust both in its stability and in its great potential.

"When a man like Warren Buffett says, to the 25,000 important economists and business people who have come to listen to him, that he believes in the Israeli economy, this is a signal to tens of thousands of investors from around the world to do what is good for them. What is good for $4 billion of Warren Buffett's money is also good for very many other investors and we can only rejoice."

Wertheimer told Olmert that he viewed the transaction as lighting an economic torch just as his father, Iscar founder and Honorary Chairman Stef Wertheimer, lit one of the ceremonial torches on Independence Day last week. He added that Buffet's declaration of confidence was an important statement for the country and will be spoken of in the same light as the Balfour Declaration.

The elder Wertheimer said that the main objective of the deal - which was consummated after six months of negotiations - was to expand industry in the Galilee. A project of his for over 25 years, has created a set of industrial parks in Israel, all with an integrated Israeli and Palestinian workforce, to promote export businesses, create jobs, and reduce gaps in living standards.

After fleeing Nazi Germany the grade school dropout joined the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah (the pre-state defense organization). A former Israeli parliament member, he is today an ardent supporter of joint Israeli-Palestinian businesses. In 2002 he testified before Congress about his idea for a "new Marshall Plan" that advocates US funding to revitalize the Middle East, a plan he still champions in speeches across the world.

Wertheimer's model park is the Tefen industrial park. Built in 1982, it encompasses everything from transportation to cultural and educational facilities. Tefen is one of four such parks in Israel that generate some $1 billion in combined revenue. The others are located in nearby Lavon, Tel Hai (further north) and Omer, near Beersheba, in the south. Not only is Tefen the site of Wertheimer's own company, but also over 20 other export oriented companies.

"At Tefen and the three other industrial parks I built 20 years ago in the Galilee and Negev, we've shown how an integrated workforce - Jews, Arabs and Druze working together - can make a difference," Wertheimer told the Fast 50 website.

At the cabinet meeting, Olmert said, "I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Wertheimer family: There are none like you - fair, patriotic, lovers and builders of this country, developers of the Galilee and the Negev, and I am convinced that the great compensation you are receiving following the sale will be a lever for further development in the same pioneering Zionist spirit that has always characterized this country."

Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, called Stef Wertheimer and told him that, "this transaction reflects foreign investor confidence in Israel's economy, and especially in the economic future in the Galilee."

With the recent deal, Peres, who is responsible for Israel's economic relations with her neighbors as well as Negev and Galilee Development, added, "A tremendous opportunity has now presented itself to continue boosting all aspects of Galilee development" and that "the most important asset that Israel possesses is its human resources."

Peres added that Iscar's sale would indeed encourage other investors and entrepreneurs from Israel and abroad to invest in the Galilee region, a "region not only blessed with pastoral beauty and holy sites, but also hi-tech, a future first class university and a wealth of human potential, all of which render the Galilee one of Israel's key economic magnets."

In view of Iscar's acquisition, and the interest of various entrepreneurs to explore tourist and business-oriented projects in the the Galilee and the Negev, Peres noted, that both these regions have become "fertile ground for establishing and cultivating thriving business operations in Israel."

According to Medved, the deal with Buffett shatters many myths that have been established about the Israeli economy.

"The deal is an eye-opener. It confounds traditional wisdom in many ways," said Medved, who went on to cite several "myths" about the Israeli economy that have been shattered by Buffett's investment. "First, [the myth] that there is nothing interesting in Israel besides high tech," says Medved, noting that Iscar is not a high tech firm.

"Second, that a cautious investor will be too scared to invest in Israel because of the political risk. If issues of political risk were there, then a cautious conservative investor like Buffett would not have made this investment."

"Third, that even if Israel excels in high tech, it does not have world-class management," he says, pointing out that not only did Buffett chose to keep the Israeli management of Iscar intact, he heaped praise on it.

Medved notes that this is just the latest of positive harbingers for the Israeli economy. Israel has the fastest growing economy in the West, with a rate of over 5% last year. Israeli stock markets are at an all-time high. In addition, the high tech industry has weathered the intifada, and in the last 5 years doubled the relative market share of venture capital markets.

3i of the UK today announced that it had invested $20 million in Giza Venture Capital’s fourth fund. 3i invests $300 million a year in technology companies at various stages. Investments in Israel to date include OmniGuide, TeleKnowledge, and Transtech Control Ltd..
3i manages $10 billion, making venture capital, private equity and buy-out investments in Europe, the US, and Asia. The company’s investment in Giza is intended to expand investment in Israeli companies.

3i Venture Capital global head Jo Taylor said, "The combined promise of Israeli companies and a general upswing in the health of global technology market makes this a good time for 3i to invest in the region. Today, emerging technology companies need to internationalize at an earlier stage in their development and 3i's investment in this leading Israeli fund allows us to deploy our international expertise and contacts to add value to Israeli companies."
3i partners Patrick Sheehan and Ali Erfan will manage 3i's venture interests in Israel.
Giza chairman Zeev Holtzman said, “3i's global network outside of Israel is second to none; a fantastic resource and its broad platform is complementary to Giza's early stage investment strategy. Through this partnership, we are excited to offer the young companies we back exposure to their target markets early on. We have created here a win-win situation."
Giza has raised $150 million for its fourth fund. Additional investors in the Giza IV Fund include California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) - $10 million; California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) -$20 million; Alpinvest Holding NV; and Executive Yuan Development Fund of Taiwan - $13 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 7, 2006

Cyota delivers online security and anti-fraud solutions to thousands of financial institutions worldwide. RSA Security is purchasing Cyota for total consideration of approximately $145 million, comprised of up to $136 million in cash for all of the outstanding capital stock of Cyota, $5.5 million in cash to fund a three-year retention pool and at least $3.5 million for the assumption of all outstanding Cyota stock options.

The transaction is expected to close within 30 days, subject to any necessary regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. RSA Security expects this transaction to add approximately $22 million to $25 million in revenue in 2006 and that it will be accretive to earnings for the second half of 2006.

"Today, RSA Security is the leader in protecting online identities and digital assets. Through our combination with Cyota, RSA Security will become the leader in the protection of consumer identities and remote transactions," said Art Coviello, president and CEO of RSA Security. "Our customers will benefit from enhanced flexibility, and consumers will also be able to enjoy -- through their account providers -- access to strong authentication and transaction protection solutions that fit their lifestyles and security needs."

With the acquisition of Cyota, RSA Security is extending its leadership position in authentication by expanding its portfolio with new products and services. RSA Security expects to be first-to-market with a risk-based layered authentication approach. This approach will allow customers to choose from a range of authentication techniques -- from life questions, watermarking and anomaly detection to digital certificates, tokens and smart cards -- depending on the risks posed and desired convenience. Additionally, RSA Security believes that the acquisition will enable the Company to establish itself as a strategic hub for the consumer marketplace, providing the ability to authenticate and protect all aspects of online banking and e-commerce: end-users, merchants and transactions.

Mr. Coviello continued: "Importantly, Cyota shares our culture of innovation and dedication to customer service. Today’s agreement will enable us to jointly drive continued innovation and to build shareholder value over the long-term." In addition to expanding RSA Security’s authentication offerings, Cyota’s technologies are opening up new market opportunities for the Company by adding anti-fraud and transaction protection services to the portfolio. These include: an anti-phishing service that provides 24x7 detection of phishing attacks, alerts to customers and fraudulent site shut-down; a transaction protection service that authenticates online credit card users and supports initiatives such as Verified by Visa sm, MasterCard SecurCode® and JCB J/Secure®; Cyota's risk-analytics techniques to identify fraudulent activity in accounts; and Cyota's eFraudNetwork, a recognized leading cross-bank collaborative online fraud network.

"We are excited to join forces with RSA Security, a world leader in security," said Naftali Bennett, CEO and co-founder of Cyota. "I am confident that Cyota’s people will continue to display the same kind of enthusiasm, rapid innovation and devoted customer service that has been our trademark in this industry."

RSA Security was advised on the acquisition by America’s Growth Capital.

Lucid intends to use the funds to "accelerate research and development and to increase the workforce," according to Giza Venture Capital Vice President Eyal Niv. Niv said company was likely to seek further venture capital funding within the next 12 to 18 months. While he would not comment on the exact amount likely to be raised, he said that "this company needs about $10 million to $15 million" to fund its goals.

Eyal Niv and Genesis Partners Partner Gary Gannot join Lucid's board following the investment.

Lucid was established in 2003, using an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Israeli business incubator Mayaan Technology Ventures. Based in Herzliya, Israel, and with an office in San Jose, Calif., the company develops high-performance chipset and architecture technology for the processing 3D graphics.

Lucid's technology uses a "parallel chip" that allows, amongst other things, several graphics processors to work in parallel to produce multiples of power and speed increases that cannot be attained using standard Graphic Processing Units. Niv said the technology would have wide applications in the deployment of high-end graphics in industries such as gaming, and professional industries where 3D visualization is used, such as architecture, mining and defence.

The company was founded by its President Offir Remez, who specializes in the computer games market and real-time compression technology, and its Chief Technical Officer Dr Reuven Bakalash, who is a Professor of Parallel Computing at Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, in South Israel. Bakalash is also the founder of California-based data aggregation software developer HyperRoll Inc.

Impella manufactures and commercializes the world’s smallest, minimally invasive, high performance micro blood pumps with integrated motors and sensors for use in interventional cardiology and heart surgery. These circulatory assist devices are used by cardiologists in the catheterization (cath) lab and are inserted percutaneously into patients, similar to a standard balloon pump procedure, in order to help restore blood flow.

Impella has CE marks for each of its devices and currently markets them throughout Europe. Under the terms of the agreement ABIOMED will acquire Impella for approximately 4.04 million shares of ABIOMED common stock and approximately $1.8 million in cash. In addition, ABIOMED may make additional contingent payments to Impella shareholders based on stock price performance, unit sales and FDA approval milestones. The contingent payments range on a scale from zero dollars to approximately $29 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Impella’s Recover® System pumps are designed to provide left ventricle support for patients suffering from reduced cardiac output and can potentially aid in recovering the hearts of patients suffering from an acute myocardial infarction (AMI or heart attack), including those who have gone into cardiogenic shock (CS). Patients typically suffer from CS within a few hours after an AMI. Traditionally, an AMI patient is administered inotropic drugs in combination with the insertion of an intra-aortic balloon pump to improve heart function and aid in blood flow. While an intra-aortic balloon pump can increase blood flow from the heart, it does not unload blood from the left ventricle (the pump of the heart), which is necessary for effective recovery. In addition, strain resulting from multiple high doses of inotropic drugs has been shown to diminish the likelihood of recovering the patient’s natural heart. Through a minimally invasive procedure similar to those commonly practiced by cardiologists, an Impella pump is temporarily inserted percutaneously into the left ventricle to help restore blood flow and increase the likelihood for recovery of the patient’s natural heart.

"Clinical data indicates that early interventional reperfusion and mechanical support is essential to heart recovery following an AMI. However, only 1 percent of AMI patients are referred to surgery for VAD implantation. Impella’s pumps provide cardiologists with a simplified minimally invasive option for left ventricular support in the cath lab enabling earlier initiation of the healing process, thereby lessening the need for subsequently more invasive procedures in many patients," said Dr. Martin Leon, Chairman, Cardiovascular Research Foundation; Associate Director, Center for Interventional Cardiovascular Research; and Professor of Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. "In addition, the Impella systems have the unique potential to become a standard part of any high risk cardiovascular procedure being performed in the cath lab, including advanced complex angioplasty, by providing needed hemodynamic support and helping to reduce procedural complications."

AMI is estimated to occur in approximately 865,000 patients annually in the United States and in over one million patients throughout the rest of the world. Of these incidents, approximately 7-10 percent, or 159,000 cases, go into cardiogenic shock, which results in death for greater than 50 percent of the patients. The clinical mindset is changing from measuring success in terms of mortality to measuring success in terms of natural heart recovery. Approximately 100,000 people in the United States, and 18,000 in Japan receive intra-aortic balloon pumps as a part of acute cardiac treatment each year. In addition, in the United States alone, there are approximately 1 million procedures conducted annually in the cath lab, of which 5-10 percent are considered to be high risk procedures that could benefit from a circulatory assist device, like the Impella pumps.

"The acquisition of Impella fits perfectly with our strategy of providing cardiac support and circulatory assist to patients throughout all areas of the hospital. We will now be able to provide a continuum of devices that increase the likelihood for recovering a patient’s natural heart, beginning in the cath lab and continuing through the surgical suite," stated Michael R. Minogue, Chief Executive Officer and President. "We are excited to bring Impella’s engineering expertise to ABIOMED as a core part of our team and strategy. In addition, this transaction will enable us to broaden our commercial presence throughout Europe and will provide ABIOMED with a strong foundation in Germany. Now, as a company, we will protect, recover and replace failing hearts," added Mr. Minogue.

Dr. Thorsten Siess, Chief Technology Officer of Impella commented, "We are delighted to become an integrated part of ABIOMED’s cardiac circulatory assist product offering. We believe that our base of 50 employees and strong patent estate strengthens ABIOMED’s overall strategy, while ABIOMED provides an impressive commercial platform from which to market the Recover technologies in the U.S. and globally."

Xeround addresses the service consistency issues emerging from the transition of signaling from SS7 to carrier class IP and the deployment of large scale VoIP and 3play data centers in place of the legacy telephony switches.

signaling solutions in terms of run-time performance, rollout simplicity, cost effectiveness, high availability, stateless load balancing and state-full recovery. Xeround targets to contribute in a material way to the tremendous momentum of the carrier market and the move to 3play, VoIP, Video, and advanced data services. Gartner estimates that the market for IP signaling products will be worth US$3B in 2008.

Sharon Barkai, CEO of Xeround said; "This financing enables Xeround to build top quality core development, sales and marketing teams, and to focus on bringing product to market early next year.."

e-Glue Software Technologies Inc., a provider of automation solutions that improve inbound and outbound call center performance, announced the completion of a $4M funding Round led by Giza Venture Capital and the Cedar Fund. Earlier Angel investors in e-Glue include software business veterans Shimon Alon and Ron Zuckerman, Kibbutz Ein-Shemer and Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael.

e-Glue’s flagship product, Guideline, is a cross-platform, user-friendly software solution that provides real-time guidance for call center agents. The product enhances agents' selling capabilities by proactively displaying context-specific information, gathered from different systems and applications and filtered through an analysis engine. This allows agents to provide temporally and personally customized offerings to callers.

Prominent industry leaders have already chosen e-Glue solutions in order to develop, deploy, integrate and execute critical business processes. The customers, including few of the largest insurance and financial companies in the US, have reported on significant improvement in their business performance as a result of using e-Glue’s solutions.

Omer Geva, CEO of e-Glue said, "Empowered by the knowledge and the experience of our new investors, this financing round will enable e-Glue to leverage the advantages of its offering and establish ourselves as the market leaders in the real-time analytic CRM market".

Giza Venture Capital and Nokia Ventures Partners make seed investment in Advasense. The company based in Herzliya is developing a CMOS image sensor for digital cameras and mobile phones, claimed to be which is 15-30 times more sensitive than the best image sensors available in the market today.

Giza managing director Ori Kirshner said, "Advasense has the potential to become the market leader in CMOS image sensors for camera phones. They are an extraordinary team and they have a breakthrough technology."

"Advasense is clearly at the forefront in revolutionizing the performance of CMOS image sensors in digital imaging products", said Nokia Venture Partners senior vice president Yossi Hasson.

"Advasense’s objective is to deliver unique imaging sensors", said Advasense founder and chairman Gideon Barak.