Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) controlling shareholder Noam Lanir has agreed to sell most of his controlling stake in the computer dictionary and translation software company to Gabi Dishi and Michael Weiss's Tamim Alpha Fund.
The fund will buy 23% of Babylon's shares from Lanir's private company and 3% from CEO Shanit Peer Tsfoni, who is realizing the untradeable options granted to her. Alpha will be a partner in Babylon together with underwriting company Poalim IBI.
Tamim Alpha will pay NIS 33 million at NIS 2.50 per share. Babylon's share price is rising sharply on the TASE today as a result of the agreement. After the deal is completed Tamim Alpha would have increased its stake from 14% to 30%.
Babylon was founded in 1997 as a software translation company but most of its growth came from Internet marketing and advertising. The company was worth NIS 2 billion in 2012 but its market cap began to fall after Google stopped its collaboration the following year.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 26, 2019
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