Is Capitalism About to Self-Destruct?
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A MONTHLY REPORT COVERING NEWS AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES JOSEPH MORGENSTERN, PUBLISHER June 2001 Vol. XVII Issue No.6 You are invited to visit us at our websit: http://ishitech.co.il Is Capitalism about to self-destruct? An unlikely scenario! Someone out there is likely to be researching and more and more perceived as seeders of pennies writing the novel that will provide ultimate insights and harvesters of dollars. into a period of booming share prices. The publica- The venture capitalists formed alliances and found tion of the Kesselman & Kesselman Pricewater- ready friends among investment bankers, respon- houseCoopers Money Tree Survey, the report card sible for creating a public market for the shares of of venture capital activities for Q1 2001 in Israel, the companies fueled by venture capital. Securi- and the popular pressÕ cries of crisis in the high-tech ties analysts joined the fray as the men and sector, prompts us to step back and put things into women capable of analyzing balance sheets and perspective. In the past five years we have experi- Ôprofit and loss statementsÕ. They are part of the enced nearly non-stop gains in equity prices. A same investment banks whose rapid rise in technology equity prices began to vested interest was for inflate into a bubble. The bubble dangerously expanded, grew to ever larger proportions. When it http://ishitech.co.il exceeded the bounds of physical restraint, "it burst all over us". In this Issue Venture Capitalists and Investment Bankers, at the Is Capitalism about to self-destruct? An unlikely scenario! Infineon and Saifun Semiconductors to Develop Flash Memory outset of the Ôplatinum ageÕ 1990s, were individuals Technology unknown to most, except perhaps to students of Benchmark Capital Closes $220 Million Fund to Invest in Israeli finance and to those in need of capital. High Tech Biotechnology Consortium Launched with $30-40m. Investment BRITECH Provides Funding Traditionally, venture capitalists function in a world Israel Unveils new Air-to-Air Missile apart from other, detached from conventional finan- $270 million in OCS Research and Development Grants cial pursuits. Venture capital is and was an industry Israel's hi-tech industry has fired 5,000 workers this year Editorial Comment whose primary task was to gather excess capital, How the Global Individual Investor Can channel it to creating new and productive enterpris- Capitalize on IsraelÕs High-Tech Boom es and as part of the process, create substantial DoubleTwist and Yeda in Exclusive Agreement Millennium Materials Fund 2 Invests in Cymbet fees and profits. Those who were privy to the nego- ISRAEL HIGH-TECH MODEL MILLENNIUM PORTFOLIO and tiations between venture capitalists and the UPDATES: providers of capital, heard explanations of the high Retalix BreezeCom risk these investments entailed. They were also told Orbotech that 60% compounded annual return was the busi- CheckPoint ness goal of the venture capitalist. Comverse The International Monetary FundÕs Report on Israel GalayOr Networks Secures $8 Million Seed Funding The venture capitalists, as the happy results of their activities were popularly publicized last year, were Copyright 2001: Israel High-Tech & Investment Report Subscription, Bulk copy and reprint information available on request Editorial Offices: P.O.Box 33633, Tel Aviv 61336, Israel Tel: 972-3-5235279 Fax: 972-3-5227799 E-mail: [email protected] ISRAEL HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT June 2001 analysts to announce Ôbuy recommendationsÕ. portfolio companies. So what is ahead of us? The Judging by the proportion of Ôbuy recommenda- venture capitalist will avoid start-ups and will tionsÕ, almost totally to the exclusion of Ôsell rec- shore up his portfolio holdings and await signs of ommendationsÕ. The system worked in an upward an American economic revival, that will be herald- moving market. However, in the final analysis, it ed by a 30-40% recovery in stock prices, based worked almost exclusively to the benefit of the on historical statistical studies. As prices rise the investment banker. Initial Public Offering market will revive, and the In the US alone, approximately 50% of Americans cashing out process for the venture capitalists, own shares. The public was hypnotized by the will resume. Profits will increase and private equi- apparently unending rise in share prices. Its ty investors will seek to allocate more funds. response to ÔBuy recommendationsÕ was followed When will this happen? Hard to tell exactly! The by quick and discreet calls to brokers with instruc- stock markets could begin their upward move as tions to buy. Occasional drops in the share market early as the November 2001-March 2002. were "used" by others to enter. A global wave of In the meantime only 33 start-up companies in greed ensued. The greed was fanned by analysts. Israel received any sort of funding in Q1 2001. In The great Isaac Newton lived in a period of boom- the preceding quarter 59 start-up companies ing share market prices. He accumulated a port- received investment. Israeli entrepreneurial activ- folio of shares on the London Stock Exchange. ity will be delayed but it will not evaporate. They rose and rose and one day the brilliant sci- Engineers, communications specialists and tech- entist decided it was time to reap his good for- nologists currently thrown out of work, will find tune. It could not continue to go up, he reasoned. employment in existing companies. The Intels Also, the profit was above all expectations. And and Vishays with their well established Israeli so he sold and banked the profit. But then repur- operations, will be happy to employers of the chased the sold shares because, he was unable skilled, intelligent and diligent. Some may even sit on the sidelines while prices continued to rise. return to the high tech jobs in the army! The market shortly afterwards collapsed and so did Isaac NewtonÕs fortune. For the rest of his life Israel High-Tech & Investment Report he never again mentioned the stock exchange. first published in January 1985 The market succumbed to The Law of Gravity and crashed. Publisher and Editor in Chief Is capitalism, of which venture capitalists are an Joseph Morgenstern integral part, about to self-destruct? An unlikely Technology Review Board scenario! There may be structural flaws but not Prof. S.J. Joel-Cohen, MD, FRCS. FRCOG irreparable damage. The flow of statistics reen- Prof. Hylton Miller, M.B. Ch.B. force this view. IVC-ONLINE has concluded that Dr. Clive L. Carpel, M.B. Ch.B. at the end of 2000 the local venture capital indus- try had a $3.0 billion accumulation of cash. This Copy Chief almost identically matches the $3.1 billion raised Debbie Mor by Israeli high-tech companies in all of 2000. Not Web Master exactly a shortage of cash. Marty Bokel The seeds of the next boom in venture capital are already being sown. As start-ups inevitably feel Subscription Inquiries the squeeze, further cash reserves are likely to Tel. 972-3-5235279 Fax. 9723-5227799 accumulate in the coffers of the Venture Capital- E-mail: [email protected] ists. According to the Money Tree Survey, 18 ven- Annual subscription t $95.- per year,11 issues, Israeli residents add 17% ture capital funds made no investments during the Web Edition and Achives quarter, either in new companies or in their own http://ishitech.co.il 2 June 2001 ISRAEL HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT $ 471m. was invested in 132 companies in this quarter, as compared to $ 845m. invested in 193 companies in the previous quarter.$ 471m. was invested in 132 companies in this quarter, as compared to $ 845m. invested in 193 companies in the previous quarter. Kesselman & Kesselman PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree Survey Infineon and Saifun Semiconductors to that it has closed a $220 million fund, dedicated Develop Flash Memory Technology to accessing the Israeli high-technology market. Benchmark Israel has drawn support from insti- Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and tutional investors, leading corporations and influ- Netanya based Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. ential high-tech executives in the U.S., Israel and announced that they have established a joint Europe. venture, named Ingentix. The new company will In addition to Benchmark institutional and individ- develop, manufacture and market flash memory ual partners, including Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: products based on SaifunÕs patented Nitrided CSCO), Rational Software (Nasdaq: RATL), Mer- Read Only Memory (NROM) technology. cury Interactive (Nasdaq: MERQ), and Infineon Ingentix initially will focus on developing MultiMe- Technologies (NYSE: ISX). Benchmark and its diaCardTM storage products, the worldÕs small- corporate partners will work together to best est memory cards. The company expects to roll leverage Israeli high-tech opportunities. out an extremely low-cost Flash-MultiMediaCard, ÒSupport for Benchmark Israel has been very with a memory capacity of 64 megabyte (MB), in strong,'' said Mark Kremer, general partner of the third quarter of the year 2002. Benchmark Israel. ÒThe vibrant Israeli high-tech industry is second Benchmark Capital Closes $220 Million only to Silicon Valley,Ó said Paul Levy, chairman Fund to Invest in Israeli High Tech of Rational Software. ÒWorking with Benchmark Benchmark Capital,Silicon Valley's leading early- for the last five years, I am excited about what we stage high-tech venture capital firm, announced can do together for both portfolio companies and 3 ISRAEL HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT June 2001 investors.Ó The new fund will focus on early- Biotechnology Consortium Launched stage investing in technology companies that with $30-40 million Investment seek to create new markets in areas where the A number of Israeli biotechnology companies partners have direct experience. These areas have received approval in principle to establish a include enterprise applications, infrastructure consortium in cooperation with the Magnet Pro- systems, software, networking equipment and, gram of the Office of the Chief Scientist at the semi-conductors and optical devices.