Something has happened at RAD Data Communications Ltd., owned by brothers Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel. Zohar Zisapel, the longstanding chairman of Rad is leaving his post, and will be succeeded by Yehuda. The change has sent forth a flood of rumors about tensions between the brothers, and sources at and around Rad say that they may even dismantle their partnership.
If that happens, it will bring to an end a 30-year partnership that has generated scores of high-tech companies and which has been a major factor in the Israeli high-tech landscape.
In the past, Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel said that their differences were the secret of their success, even during disagreements. Radware CEO Roy Zisapel, Yehuda Zisapel's son, told "Globes" that the relationship between his father and uncle was like a successful marriage.
Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel strongly deny any dispute or break-up. "It's all drivel. These are hallucinations of the Oriental imagination," says Yehuda Zisapel, adding, "I understand that heat stroke affects people."
Zohar Zisapel adds, "At all of our joint companies, when we both sit on the board of directors, one of us is more active, usually the chairman, and the other is less active as a director. I've been at Rad for many years, first as CEO and then as chairman, and I've wanted to switch the chairmanship with Yehuda for a long time. The opportunity came up with the retirement of CEO Efraim Wachtel."
Sources close to Rad say that Yehuda Zisapel and Wachtel did not see eye-to-eye, and that Yehuda's appointment as chairman, so long as Wachtel was CEO, was liable to affect work at the company. Dror Bin took up the post of Rad CEO a month ago, after a stint at Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT). Zohar Zisapel says that this was the right time to change the company's chairman too. He told "Globes", "It is not good to make too frequent changes at such a company. We did not want a situation in which I and the new CEO would decide on a particular line of action, and then the chairman would change. It is better that the new CEO will draw up new directions with a new CEO,"
"Globes": What about the rumors between you and your brother?
Zohar Zisapel: "We have an excellent relationship. It is not the easiest thing to get along with him, but after so many years, I've learned. I think that it is hard for people to see a different figure at Rad in my place, and they are making all kinds of suppositions."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 5, 2012
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