Over $20 Million Raised At Saban-Chaired FIDF Gala

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More than 1,000 attended the FIDF Western Region Gala, which featured musician Lionel Richie, David Foster and Friends, and a $150,000 donation from TV star Simon Cowell.

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 (L-R) Rabbi Yechiel and Joelle Eckstein, Haim and Cheryl Saban, Dr. Rebecka and Dr. Arie Belldegrun / Michelle Mivzari

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Over $20 million was raised at the annual Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Western Region Gala yesterday, Tuesday, October 22, 2013. More than 1,000 FIDF supporters and dignitaries from the United States and Israel gathered to express their support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). FIDF National Board Member and major supporter, Haim Saban, and his wife, Cheryl, served as chairs of the star-studded FIDF Gala that took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.

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   Simon Cowell and Haim Saban  /Michelle Mivzari

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Notable donations made at the event included $4.5 million from Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Founder and President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, $3.5 million from Vicki and Ron Simms of Simms Commercial Development, $2.3 million from Cheryl and Haim Saban, $2 million from Younes Nazarian, Co-Founder of Qualcomm, and his wife Soraya, and $1 million from Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle. Simon Cowell of American Idol and X-Factor also attended the event and announced a donation of $150,000 to benefit the IDF soldiers. The funds raised at the Gala will go towards wellbeing and educational programs for IDF soldiers.

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Cheryl Saban with Ben Silverman and Jennifer Cuoco / Orly Halevy

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The evening began with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner and a program, emceed by FIDF National and Western Region President, Julian Josephson, and featured remarkable performances by David Foster and Friends. Attendees were enthralled by the surprise performance of five-time Grammy Award winner, Lionel Richie. Among the many participants at the Gala were Avi Arad, CEO of Marvel Studios and Founder of Arad Productions Inc., and his wife Joyce, Avi Lerner, Co-Chairman of NuImage, brothers Maurice and Paul Marciano of Guess Jeans, Ben Silverman, Founder and CEO of Electus, and his wife Jennifer Cuoco, Casey Wasserman of Wasserman Media Group, and Eli Tene, Co-Founder, Co-Managing Director and Principal of Peak Corporate Network and a Co-Founder and former Co-Chairman of the Israeli American Council, and his wife Dafna.

The FIDF national and local leadership present at the event included Nily Falic, FIDF National Chairman, Julian Josephson, FIDF National and Western Region President, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon, FIDF National Director and CEO, Leo David, FIDF Western Region Founder and Chairman, and his wife Ruth.

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Leo David, FIDF Western Region Founder and Chairman, and Sheriff Lee Baca / Orly Halevy

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A very touching moment at the event occurred when Lone Soldiers, brothers Tamir Lerner, a combat soldier in the elite IDF unit Golani, and Adee Lerner, an IDF paratrooper, surprised their parents, Ettie and Shmulik Lerner, on stage. This emotional family reunion, which brought the crowd to tears, was made possible by the FIDF Lone Soldiers Program, which brought the brothers from Israel to Los Angeles so they could surprise their parents. The FIDF Lone Soldiers Program supports soldiers who have decided to leave their countries of origin and serve in the IDF. The program provides financial and social support, retreats, scholarships, and flights to visit their families abroad.

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 Vicki Simms with Nily Falic, FIDF National Chairman /Michelle Mivzari

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“The Jewish and Israeli community in LA showed its support and love yesterday for the soldiers of Israel,” said Saban. “The event connects this warm community with IDF soldiers, and it is our opportunity to say thank you to the soldiers who defend the State of Israel.”

About Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF):

FIDF was established in 1981 by a group of Holocaust survivors as a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing and supporting educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the heroic men and women of the IDF. Today, FIDF has more than 120,000 loyal supporters, and 15 regional offices throughout the U.S. and Panama.

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Cisco to fire dozens in Israel

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Most of the layoffs will be at the former NDS, which is Cisco Systems Israel’s largest operation.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) will fire dozens employees in Israel, as part of the firing of 4,000 employees worldwide, 5% of its workforce. Cisco Systems has 2,000 employees in Israel, a fraction of its global workforce.Cisco Systems Israel declined to comment on the report.

There have been several waves of layoffs at Cisco Systems Israel in the past, but the present wave appears to be smaller. Most of the layoffs will be at activities of former NDS, which is Cisco Systems Israel’s largest operation. The layoffs will reportedly affect headquarters and logistics staff.

NDS, a developer of pay TV and video content encryption solutions, was acquired by Cisco for $5 billion in early 2012. Although NDS had long since ceased to be an Israeli-owned company, most of its operations are in the country, where it has 1,200 employees.

The acquisition of NDS turned Cisco into one of the five biggest foreign high-tech companies in Israel. Cisco said that the acquisition was part of its plan to strengthen its Israeli center with information security solutions. A promise by Cisco CEO John Chambers during a visit to Israel in June, that the company planned to hire IT security personnel, has not yet materialized.

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Indian Bank SIDBI Seeks Israeli Investments In water technology, agriculture, communications and renewable energy

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The Small Industries Development Bank of India is seeking investments in Israel and the bank intends to establish a joint investment fund with Kaenaat.

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Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

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The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is seeking investments in Israel – the bank intends to establish a joint investment fund with Kaenaat, a company that deals with investments in emerging markets. Kaenat chairman, Yariv Cohen, told “Globes” that the new fund will focus its operations on assisting small and medium Israeli companies that are looking to enter the Indian market, or to expand their activity in India, in Indian sectors that have been marked as having the potential to encourage growth. The collaboration agreement between the bank and the investment company was signed recently, after representatives from the bank made several trips to Israel.

“This is the first time that SIDBI is seeking an international partner with whom to invest, and we are glad that the bank chose Israel. We are talking about a world-leading, top-tier financing and development body that has far-reaching influence on the development of Indian industry,” says Cohen. Among the instruments that the bank is using to support small and medium businesses are investments, loans, risk insurance, and managerial and strategic support for companies following the investment. Until now, the bank has focused its activity within India, and has supported 10,000 local businesses, in part through 4 investment funds.

Cohen said, “The collaboration between Israeli companies and the joint fund could broaden the trading volume between the two countries, which today does not reflect even a small part of the potential.” Cohen noted that Israeli companies can provide a response to Indian market needs in areas such as water technology, agriculture, communications and renewable energy: “SIDBI’s ability to identify the most suitable Indian partner for collaboration with an Israeli company, to build the partnership, and to support it using the wide array of vehicles at its disposal, makes it the correct partner for investments in India,” he said.

Yesterday, Minister of Economy, Naftali Bennett, flew out on a business trip to India, during which he is scheduled to meet with India’s Ministers of Treasury and Economy. During his five-day trip, Bennett is scheduled to meet with senior officials in the Indian economic system to discuss strengthening the collaboration between the two countries. Trade totaled $4.4 billion last year.

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Glencore group of Ivan Glasenberg spend $ 1 billion to buy 50.1% control of coal mine In Australia with Sumitomo

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Ivan Glasenberg/Getty

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Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore's Xstrata Plc (Glencore) and Sumitomo Corporation (Sumitomo) jointly signed an agreement to acquire, on a 50: 50 basis, 50.1% stake of Rio Tinto in thermal coal mine Clermont (Clermont) in Queensland, Australia, for a little over US $ 1 billion in cash

Once the deal closes, Glencore will take over the operational management and marketing for the joint venture of Clermont and be paid management fees to do so.

In Japan the Fukushima nuclear power plant cleanup, which was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, continues to deal with voluminous and insoluble Difficulty. It seems that the probability of significant discharges to water in irradiated nuclear ground offshore is now increasingly inevitable. The implication for the Japanese nuclear industry remains, then, as all its remaining nuclear power plants remain closed. Japan's population remains extremely cautious allowing them to reopen basically any of them until it can be reassured regarding their security.

As a result, renewed reliance on coal fired power becomes increasingly place the fall back and with this transaction clearly Japan Inc. is shoring up its strategic potential thermal coal supply and make sure that it won't be closed off by the Chinese markets which are also heavily consumers of thermal coal to fuel their expansion plans. Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan is also already a participant 31.4% in Clermont and a consortium of Japanese power companies owns the balance.

Given the fall in prices of thermal coal last year, the price represents a success for Rio Tinto than trying to download it for a while and now they got a good price. To Glencore that the deal can be viewed as a contrarian move, as in times of boom this good simply were not available and are in the business for the long haul.

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Thermal coal mine in Clermont (Clermont) in Queensland, Australia

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As Glencore merged with Xstrata this year didn't have to repair their balance-sheet is, unlike Rio Tinto itself that had gone too far in the previous M & mining arm. So it looks like a deal that makes everyone happy – which is the best kind.

Clermont is an open mine that produces important thermal high-energy coal with low ash. Is well capitalized, and efficient, producing 12 million tons per year, Australia's third largest thermal coal mine production. His ' JORC RESOURCE (mineral reserves reserves Committee joint) at the end of 2012 were about 172 million metric tons.

Mr Peter Freyberg, who heads the management activities of Glencore's coal, commented:

"We are pleased to be jointly acquiring a controlling interest in this mine with Sumitomo, joint venture partner for many years our other Queensland coal operations. Clermont is a low-cost mine large-scale offering an interesting financial return. In addition to being the third largest thermal of coal mine in Australia, Clermont is structurally low cost, with its sustained profitability since its report of life-of-mine low Strip 3.2: 1 [i.e. lower ratio of overburden to ore-ed], and the ability to bypass the 90% of coal without washing. "

"This investment is our focus on identifying high quality assets that complement our existing operations and marketing capacity. Going forward, we will further expand our relationship with Sumitomo where there are mutually beneficial opportunities. "

Mr. Toru Furihata, Senior Managing Executive Officer, Managing Director, mineral resources, energy, chemical & Electronics Business Unit of Sumitomo, for its part, commented:

"Sumitomo and Glencore have enjoyed a successful partnership for many years and we are delighted to expand this strategic relationship through the joint acquisition of Clermont, a high quality producing mine. We draw confidence from the mine operated by Glencore, given their strong track record of extracting maximum value from the resources of coal. We are very pleased to share joint control of the mine along with Glencore and we'll be happy to contribute to the stable supply of coal smoke, especially in the Asian region ".

Half the money for the acquisition will come from new funding to be provided by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, on a basis of solute. The rest will be sent also by Glencore and Sumitomo. Subject to customary closing conditions and the necessary approvals, the purchase will close in early 2014.

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About Xstrata Glencore

Glencore is one of the largest global companies and diversified natural resources in the world. Glencore is a leader in integrated production and marketing of raw materials which seeks to grasp the value at every stage of the supply chain of natural resources. The Group has a global network of over 90 offices in more than 50 countries. It's industrial operations consist of more mining and metallurgical sites 150, offshore oil production goods, farms and agricultural structures.

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On Sumitomo Corporation

Sumitomo Corporation is a general trading company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with 116 locations in 65 countries and 24 national positions. The Sumitomo Corporation group consists of nearly 800 companies and more than 70,000 staff and its business is expanding continuously in a diverse range of products and services.

Its core business units are metal products; Transportation construction systems &; & Environment of infrastructure; Lifestyle media, network, its goods & services; and mineral resources, energy, chemical & electronics.

 See other stories on Ivan Glasnberg:

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Your Fridge Will Never Be Empty Again with Smartli’s Automatic Grocery Shopping System

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Say goodbye to tedious shopping lists and aggravatingly long lines at the supermarket’s checkout counter: Smartli, an Israeli-based startup, has developed an automatic grocery shopping system that uses sensors to track which items are missing from your fridge, generates a personalized shopping list, and ensures that these items are delivered directly to your door at your preferred time.

According to an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 15 percent of US adults have shopped for groceries online, and an additional 19 percent say they don’t currently, but plan to in the future. Additionally, the survey reveals that one of the main impediments to online grocery shopping is the difficulty of creating a shopping list without seeing the items before your eyes. It is within this context that Smartli enters the arena.

Smartli is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Iri Zohar, and is the application of the Internet-of-Things (a digital future in which objects are identified by and connected to the internet) in the world of grocery shopping. “I really like the advanced technology aspect of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and I really like the consumer value… doing something which adds value.” He says.

A smart fridge that creates its own shopping list

Smartli uses IoT sensors, which “take an inventory” of the current groceries in your fridge. Then there is a “very advanced data mining engine, which looks at your consumption and figures out what you’re going to need without you having to do any work… It will combine what you have and what you need and come up with this week’s shopping list.” All that is required is for the user to approve the automatically generated list. The result, simply put by Zohar, “someone comes to your house and gives you everything you need.”

Moreover, Zohar is careful to mention that “we give you control, but it’s your choice how much control you want.” By this he means that the Smartli user is at liberty to modify the automated shopping list, by accessing it through his smartphone or computer.

But Zohar believes tools like Smartli won’t remove the human interaction aspect completely: “People who buy online, usually still buy many things offline… and I think that’s still going to be the case.” He is not worried about the “trillion dollar industry” of in-store grocery shopping.

Taking on the US market

Rather, Zohar envisions a future in which the supermarket will become a “more fun and engaging experience.” Customers will still go to the supermarket for the “stuff that people really like to touch and see and choose… the fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and bread,” but they will be able to avoid “carrying the heavy boxes” through technologies like Smartli.

Smartli recently received $277,000 from Michael Kattan (a member of the prominent banking family Safra), which accounts for the bulk of their funding. Other funds come directly from Zohar and other members of the company.

The company is currently conducting pilot projects in Israel and the US and their main focus remains in the US, “a convenient lab to test out technologies,” according to Zohar. Smartli plans to launch a more robust pilot in the US in 2014, but Zohar would not reveal any details.

NoCamels, Israeli Innovation News

Mark Pincus’s Taking A Back Seat Seems To Be Working As Zynga Cuts Their Losses In The Third Quarter

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After stepping down in July from the role of CEO, Pincus can only watch and wonder how his replacement appears to be leading the company into more tranquil waters.

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Pincus, still the major shareholder in the online gaming company that he founded,  must be experiencing some mixed feelings as Don Mattrick,  the CEO that came in to replace him shows some initial signs of turning the company round.

With Mattrick at the helm visiting you had a more encouraging quarter in comparison to some of the last few that Pincus managed when he was still running the company. Don Mattrick has succeeded in cutting back on losses during the third quarter, but income for the company has continued to fall while statistics show that considerably less people are playing Zynga games than they did.

The last few months of being among the most difficult for Mark Pincus in his career as an online entrepreneur, not made any easier by the fact that during that time, Candy Crush now reported to be the hottest online game of all time, is breaking records in terms of revenue, pulling in not far from one million dollars every day from its online followers in every corner of the world. Candy Crush’s developers, UK-based King in the latter stages of preparing an IPO.

However, all is not doom and gloom at Zynga, whose shares jumped by twelve percent after news of their less disappointing than expected results broke.

Shareholders obviously feel that their arrival of Don Mattrick from Microsoft which he was in charge of their Xbox division has had a calming influence on the day-to-day running of the San Francisco Company.

Another piece of significant news for Zynga is that Mattrick has done a serious piece of headhunting, pulling in a former colleague, Clive Downie to take up the role of chief operating officer at the Zynga. Downie will take up his position almost immediately, after apparently being attracted to the challenge he will obviously face at Zynga, and will be leaving his current employees, mobile game maker DeNA. Downie and Mattrick have a long-term working relationship which they formed when they worked together at Electronic Arts Inc. another video game maker

Zynga has made a major breakthrough by enticing Downie to join the company as he comes with tremendous expertise in mobile games. Zynga has suffered badly under Mark Pincus, with industry experts point to the fact that his failure to lead the company forward into a transition to mobile, which has virtually eliminated the desktop computer from the gamers’ philosophy. Zynga’s most popular video games, particularly “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars,” were designed and produced principally to be played on desktop and laptop computers, which are slowly making their way into history especially among the under twenty-five’s.

Most industry analysts agreed that failing to recognize the strength of the switch to mobile is what cost Mark Pincus his role as CEO as well as creating some massive losses at Zynga. Losses which caused company stock to drop as much as 60 percent from the opening price of $10 on offer when the company went public almost two years ago.

During Pincus’s last few days in the post as CEO , Zynga instigated a major cost-cutting exercise, by cutting his payroll dramatically, laying off more than five hundred  employees, or 18 percent of its payroll.

Industry analysts expect that the effects of the cost-cutting should be enough to trim Zynga’s losses for the fourth quarter due to end in December. Estimates are that the losses could range between $21 million to $31 million, a major improvement on the $49 million that the Zynga lost in the same quarter in 2012.

Despite the fact that Zynga reported a loss of $68,000 in the three quarters up to the end of September, their shares gained 44 cents to $3.98 in extended trading Thursday, making for a spectacular improvement from the losses of $52.7 million, equivalent to seven cents per share, for the corresponding period time last year.

For the period Zynga’s income dropped by 36 percent to $202.6 million, although it was around $13 million more than had been expected.  What must be waiting for Mark Pincus as well as the management team at the Zynga is that the average number of people playing Zynga’s games regularly during the third quarter was reported to be in the region of thirty million, half of what it was for the same time last year. For the same quarter, industry estimates point that around one hundred million people played the Candy crush on their Smartphones and pads.

Mark Pincus was born and raised in Chicago . After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Mark Pincus spent a number of years learning the ropes of the venture capital and financial services industries, working for two years as a financial analyst in New York with Lazard Freres & Co., after which he spent four years in exotic Hong Kong, filling a Vice President‘s post at Asian Capital Partners for two years.

After completing his stint in Hong Kong, Pincus decided that the time was right to gain his masters degree, which he from Harvard Business School.

After leaving Harvard Pincus was appointed manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc., which have since become part of AT&T Cable, later joining. Columbia Capital as Vice President, where he had his first encounter with the fast growing world of hi –tech as head of the department that handled investments in new media and software startups.

Mark’s time at Columbia Capital obviously gave him a taste for the opportunities available in the industry and just a year later, in 1995; he launched his first startup, a push technology service under the title of Freeloader, Inc., which he succeeded in selling after just seven months picking up a cool $38 million.

It took Pincus just a few months to establish his next hi-tech venture, Support.com, which he succeeded in building into one of the Internet’s leading software providers for the service and support industry, taking the company public in 2002.

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Japanese Daily “Nikkei”: Israeli TowerJazz In Talks To Buy Panasonic Fabs

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“Nikkei”: Panasonic has started talks to sell some overseas plants to Tower, with a deal likely to be reached before early next year.

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Panasonic Corporation (TSE: 6752) is in trouble, and Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) may be a beneficiary. Japanese daily “Nikkei” reports that Panasonic has started talks to sell some overseas plants to Israeli circuit-maker TowerJazz with a deal likely to be reached before early next year. According to “Nikkei”, Panasonic plans to cut 7,000 jobs from its semiconductor business, half its workforce, by March 2015, in order to deal with the company’s $15 billion in losses in the past two years.In view of Panasonic’s financial shape, if and when a deal is reached in the talks, the price that Tower will pay for the fabs is unlikely to be high. If a sale materializes, it would expand Tower’s foothold in Japan. Two years ago, it acquired the Japanese fab of Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) in Nishiwaki City. Tower needs additional production capacity to meet rising demand from its customers and to prepare for potential business in Japan.

The purpose of the acquisition is to enable Tower to meet its business target of $1 billion annual sales by 2014. The Nishiwaki fab is currently operating at one quarter capacity, after Micron reduced its procurement of chips from it.

In addition, two years ago, Tower bought a second fab in Japan, reportedly for tens of millions of dollars.

Tower declined to comment on the report.

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