Mergers make Matrix one of Israel's biggest employers

Matrix Hq in Kfar Saba credit: Matrix
Matrix Hq in Kfar Saba credit: Matrix

For many years the IT services and consultancy sector in Israel has been one of the most active in terms of mergers and acquisitions.

Following recent mergers Israeli IT services and consultancy company Matrix (TASE: MTRX) has become one of Israel's biggest employers with 12,500 employees, including 10,682 in Israel at the end of the third quarter. That's most employees than Intel Israel, which was for many years until recent layoffs Israel's biggest private employer. Only Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE:ESLT) with 14,000 employees and Shufersal Ltd. (TASE:SAE) have more employees. 52% of Matrix's employees are women.

Matrix, under CEO Moti Gutman and controlled by Formula Systems (TASE: FORTY), has recently announced three acquisitions: US company Alacer, which provides IT consultancy services for big companies in the US including Citi and Toyota, for several million dollars; Israeli company Ortec Marketing Equipment & Supply, which manufactures and markets equipment for the electronics and chip industry, was acquired in early December; and last week Haifa-based Gav Systems and Gav Express, which provide a range of IT solutions including technology development, consulting and outsourcing, for NIS 45 million. The latter acquisition added 850 employees to Matrix's fast expanding workforce.

For many years the IT services sector in Israel has been one of the most active in terms of mergers and acquisitions. The biggest companies in the sector including Matrix, Hilan (TASE: HLAN), One Software Technologies (TASE: ONE) and Malam-Team (TASE: MLTM) have made many acquisitions, mainly of small companies in the field, bringing in more and more business and employees.

But in recent years, there has been a lull in the number of mergers and acquisitions, but some recent moves may indicate a renewed appetite among the giants of the field. At this point, most of the activity is coming from Matrix, by far the biggest company in the sector in Israel, although earlier this month One Technologies acquired Bezeq Online from Bezeq for NIS 50 million and Hilan acquired Israeli and Bulgarian companies for NIS 86 million.

At the beginning of the year One had 7,052 employees, with 2,400 more employees added through the acquisition of Bezeq Online, Hilan has 5,360 employees and Malam Team has 4,818 employees.

The IT market encompasses a wide range of fields, from computing infrastructures, through software solutions for organizations, payroll management and human resources. The revenue of the four leading companies in the industry amounted to about NIS 12 billion in January-September of this year, of which Matrix's share was approximately 35%. The company reported a handsome 7.5% rise in revenue, while net profit since the beginning of the year has jumped by 19% to NIS 203 million. Matrix is currently traded at a market cap of over NIS 5.6 billion, after the company's share price jumped by 31% over the past year. The return on the share price of Hilan, the second largest company in the industry (with a market cap of NIS 5.3 billion), was lower, at 22%.

One Technologies and Malam Team shares yielded much higher returns of 52% and 68% over the past year, respectively. The Tel Aviv 125 index, which includes these four computing giants, rose by 28% during this period.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 19, 2024

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024

Matrix Hq in Kfar Saba credit: Matrix
Matrix Hq in Kfar Saba credit: Matrix
Arik Faingold credit: Nati Levi Israeli autonomous frontend co AutonomyAI raises $4m

Led by Arik Faingold, the founder of cybersecurity unicorn Pentera, AutonomyAI offers a platform that learns and understands the full organizational context and generates code that can be deployed directly to the production environment.

British Airways aircraft  credit: Shutterstock/Jarek Kilian Tel Aviv - London fares to fall as British Airways resumes flights

From June there will be 20-32 weekly flights operated on the popular Tel Aviv - London route by foreign airlines - British Airways, Wizz Air and easyJet.

Partner Partner forms int'l business diivision

The division will be headed by former Bezeq International VP Global Business Nissan Arieh.

Caesarstone kitchen credit: Caesarstone Caesarstone bucks Nasdaq as tariffs boost potential

The Israeli quartz countertop manufacturer company has fallen on hard times due to Chinese rivalry but tariffs could boost its revenue.

ZIM ship credit: ZIM Trump's tariffs torpedo ZIM's share price

ZIM's share price fell 16.4% on Wall Street on Thursday and a further 7.2% on Friday, closing with a market cap of $1.5 billion, wiping out all its gains in 2025.

Israeli apartments Credit: Shutterstock Apartments sold and rented

A selection of recent real estate deals in Israel in Tel Aviv, Holon, Rehovot, Kiryat Tivon, Shlomi and Beersheva.

THAAD anti missile system credit: The US Army Ralph Scott Wikimedia US deploys more THAAD, Patriot batteries in Israel - report

Amid rising regional tensions the US is bolstering Israel's air defense, Saudi state-owned TV channel Al Arabiya reports.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange credit: Shutterstock TASE tumbles in Wall Street's wake

Dual-listed stocks have again been hard hit, but the banks are also down sharply.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu credit: Avi Ohayon Netanyahu due in Washington to discuss tariffs

According to news website Axios, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first leader to meet President Trump after the latter's announcement of sweeping import tariffs.

Yoni Assia CEO eToro Credit: PR eToro defers IPO amid market turmoil

The online trading platform had planned to begin meetings with investors this week.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Shlomi Yosef Smotrich meets wrong man in Washington

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich tried to persuade Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to soften the tariff blow on Israel - only Bessent isn't responsible for the matter.

Unframe founders credit: Yossi Yarom Israeli AI enterprise platform co Unframe raises $50m

Unframe’s turnkey AI solutions enable companies to solve any enterprise AI use case at scale with fully functional, customized AI solutions for businesses in a matter of hours, rather than months.

Combatica credit: Combatica Combatica launches next-gen VR AI training platform

The Israeli company's virtual reality platform includes 50 AI generated scenarios, seven maps and even situations for operating night vision.

Shekel credit: Shutterstock Vladirina 32 Shekel volatility after US tariffs announcement

The shekel is weakening sharply against the euro, which is gaining following the unveiling of Donald Trump's tariffs plan.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Noam Moskovitz Knesset Spokesperson Treasury assesses potential damage to Israel's US exports

Israel will be charged a higher tariff on its exports to the US - its biggest export customer - than Turkey and the UAE.

Iranian flag credit: Shutterstock Why inflation haunts Iran

With a month-on-month increase of 3.3% and an annual rate of 37.1%, inflation reflects the struggles of millions of Iranians.

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018