Cisco, a marketer of data communications products, is buying US company InfoGear for $308 million. InfoGear's subsidiary in Israel, InfoGear Technologies, is in charge of InfoGear's R&D, and employs 40 staff. One of its founders is Chaim Bendelac, an Israeli, who serves as VP of engineering in InfoGear.
Silicon Valley-based InfoGear has developed a technology for managing Internet appliances. One of its products is iPhone, a telephone fitted with a screen, which links up to the Internet and enables browsing in designated content sites through a unique server developed by InfoGear.
A retail store chain, for instance, may lend a customer such an instrument, which costs several hundred dollars, so as to enable him to make purchases through the Internet. Such a customer need not know how to operate a PC, because all operations are carried out by touching the telephone's screen and browsing. The device may allow a large number of customers to engage in e-commerce.
Cisco is the world's leading developer and marketer of data communications products.
InfoGear's purchase is part of Cisco's present strategy of supplying Internet communications infrastructures. Cicso has announced it would buy 25-30 companies in 2000.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 16 March, 2000