"One of my objectives for the year is to acquire at least one company in Israel," said Microsoft Israel R&D center head Yoram Yaacovi at the "Globes" and Ernst & Young Journey 2011 Conference in Tel Aviv today. "Will we succeed? I don’t know. But that's why we're here." He spoke at the "Cloud - opportunities, challenges and new financial models" panel.
Two months, Yaacovi told "Globes" that the Israel R&D center's future growth would mainly be driven by acquisitions.
Intel Capital Software and Services Group managing director Lisa Lambert said, "There are quite a few acquisitions in the cloud field, which is quite a lot for a field that isn't really developed. Some of our companies with no revenue receive valuations of hundreds of millions of dollars, which tell us that there are many opportunities for liquidity for start-ups."
Clarizen CEO Avinoam Nowogrodski said, "I think that working with cloud computing creates many opportunities for Israeli companies. As an SaaS provider, you can really feel like a US company in terms of marketing ability and positioning. I think a big SaaS company can be built in Israel."
Amazon Web Services VP worldwide sales Daniel Powers said, "In general, Amazon has made a lot of acquisitions, and we are always looking at relevant companies."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2011
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