High tech investor Elron (Nasdaq: ELRN) today announced that Oren Semiconductor, Inc., an affiliated company and developer of chips for digital television, had raised $8 million in a financing round.
Participants in the round included Zoran (Nasdaq: ZRAN) and Oren's existing shareholders, including Elron. Oren's existing shareholders also converted outstanding loans totaling $8.4 million into stock.
Zoran and Oren had reached an agreement to cooperate to sell Oren's front-end solution with Zoran's back-end chips to major players in the digital television market, Elron stated.
Elron said it had a 41% stake in Oren after the investment and loan conversion. According to Elron’s website, the company had a 17% stake in Oren before the investment.
Elron president and CEO Doron Birger said,"With Zoran as the second strategic investor in Oren after Sony invested in 2001, Oren is now positioned to become a major player in the digital television market and is one of the promising companies in our group".
Oren is a privately held company founded in 1996 and develops demodulator VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) products for digital TV and set-top boxes. The company, which operates in Israel from its headquarters in Yokneam Illit, sells its products through direct sales, distributors, and OEMs on a worldwide basis.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 3 August, 2003