Shibolet & Co. Advocates and Notaries, one of Israel's leading law firms, is merging the Ben Zvi Israeli boutique law firm into itself. Ben Zvi specializes in high tech. Shibolet's high-tech practice was already one of Israel's largest before the merger, accounting for more than half of the firm's business. Following the merger, Shibolet's high-tech department numbers 28 lawyers, 10 of whom are partners in the firm.
Omer Ben Zvi is joining Shibolet with his associate and four employed lawyers, who have been active for many years in providing advice to the high-tech industry. Ben Zvi's clients include investment funds, Israeli and overseas investors, and high-tech companies. Among other things, Ben Zvi negotiated the Riverwood private equity fund's $110 million acquisition of Sintec-Media. Last year, his firm handled the sale of Versafe to F5 and the huge Wix offering.
Shibolet partner and high-tech department head Lior Aviram said, "The addition of the Ben Zvi Israeli law firm will provide our practice with addition depth in volume and experience. It brings us dozens of technology companies and venture capital funds."
Ben Zvi said, "Joining the Shibolet firm is appropriate for our business culture, and will enable us to continue giving individual and close attention to our startups, while providing broad and deep support in supplementary areas, which you can never do without, at the highest level in Israel.
"Globes": What are the hottest areas in high tech today?\
Aviram: "The most important thing for startus has always been, and will always be, raising money. In recent years, following the substantial downsizing of the Israeli venture capital industry, there has been a great expansion of alternative sources of investment of large sums that has not been seen since the bubble period. The place of the Israeli funds in the early capital raising stages has been taken by angels and their variations: angels funds, micro-funds, angels networks, and crowdfunding. At the later financing stages, there is a massive entry of foreign funds."
Aviram added, "We, too, as advisers who regard helping companies raise money as part of our mission, have done what is necessary to help raise capital in a situation that has changed completely during a relatively short five-year period."
According to Aviram, Crowdfunding is in itself a hot area, which many places around the world, including Israel, are trying to master in order to bring about a real revolution in capital raising turning making ordinary people into startup investors. "The entire area is being studied and developed," he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 22, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014