Financial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon announced that they agreed to continue subsidizing kindergartens operating in the afternoon at the end of the school day, in the coming school year. The proposal will be submitted for Cabinet approval. The two claimed that a financial source was found for the continuation of the subsidy, but did not provide explanations as to the effect of the subsidy on the expected cuts in government ministries, in light of the growing deficit. Attorney General Mandelblit confirmed on Sunday that the budgets of government ministries...

French-Israeli businessman Patrick Derhey buys Sotheby's, the largest auction house in the art world, for $ 3.7 billion. Sotheby's announced that BidFair USA, owned by communications and telecom entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, will pay $ 57 per share in cash, and Sotheby's will become a private company. This is a 61% upside on the share's closing price last Friday on Wall Street - $ 35.39 per share, reflecting a market value of $ 26 billion before the deal

Netflix announced on Thursday that it will also raise prices in Israel. The change comes along with price increases in dozens of countries around the world, including France, Italy, Ireland and another 17 countries. At the time of the launch, the company offered three payment plans - the first for about NIS 30, which allows viewing one screen, the other for about NIS 40 for viewing on two screens, and the third and most advanced one, which allowed viewing four screens for NIS 50. Now the basic package price is expected to rise by NIS 3 to NIS 33, the price of the middle package will rise by...

Exits in the first half of 2019 totaled $ 14.48 billion in 66 deals, including the acquisition of Ananeda by Mellanox (a deal of $ 6.9 billion not yet completed). Without the Mellanox deal, the total amount of exits in the first half of the year was $ 7.58 billion, according to the IVC research report and the firm Meitar for the first half of 2019. Compared to the first half of 2018, the number of exits decreased slightly from 73 to 66 this year. On the other hand, the average value of the exit rose to $ 116.6 million without the Mellanox deal, and almost doubled compared to $ 63 million...

The private US investment fund Bridge Point acquired control of the Israeli Qualitet from another US fund - Merlin Equity Partners; The purchaser announced today. The deal was not disclosed, but market sources estimated it at $ 420 million. The figure represents a multiple of five times for the seller. Qualitast is a software testing and quality assurance company established in 1998 by Eli Margolin and Eyal Zilberman. It is considered the second largest QA company in the world. In recent years, Qualitast has established its software testing activity on automation and artificial...

Bezeq International employees signed an agreement with management, according to which over 300 employees will leave the company in the next five years - about 25% of the company's employees. According to the agreement, the cost of the workers' provision will reach more than NIS 50 million. The management will increase the various welfare payments and grant a special bonus to the employees on the basis of the cooperation between the subsidiaries. These are agreements for the voluntary retirement of hundreds of employees. The cuts in Bezeq International are made against the backdrop of a...

US software giant Salesforce acquires Israeli software company Clicksoftware for $ 1.35 billion in a cash deal. The biggest beneficiary of the deal is the private equity investment Francisco Partners, after Clicksoftware was sold to the fund for $ 440 million in 2015. Clicksoftware was founded by Moshe Ben Best, but he retired from its current management and became a consultant to the company and a member of the board of directors for a short period. Clicksoftware CEO today is American Mark Cantini, the former CEO of Autotesk joining the company in early 2018. Most Clixoftware employees...

The Aeronautics deal was approved by the government. The Social Economic Cabinet, led by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, approved the deal in which Rafael government company and businessman Avihai Stolero bought Aeronautics for NIS 850 million. The Aeronautics Group is an Israeli company engaged in the development and production of intelligence-based, unmanned systems solutions for the international security market. The company's center is in Yavne. Following the transaction, Aeronautics' stock will be deleted from the stock exchange and will become a private company. The aerospace...

The huge Niketown store that Fox will set up at the Yorkdale Mall in Toronto will span two floors of approximately 3,000 square feet. At its establishment, a sum of about $ 12 million (about NIS 42 million) will be invested, with a substantial portion estimated to be funded by the mall. The store is slated to open in November 2020, with the store's lease agreement for 10 years and includes an option to extend it for another 5 years. It is estimated that sales at such a store are expected to exceed $ 20 million per year. Niketown is a concept of huge stores spread over several floors in...

Netanyahu insisted, and succeeded: After the permit committee repeatedly rejected his request for funding for his legal protection from his associates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the long-sought approval from the new State Comptroller, Netanyahu Engelman. Englishman approved Netanyahu to take out $ 300,000 loan from Spencer Partridge businessman, "on market terms." In effect, an Englishman bypassed the permit committee next to his office, which refused to allow Netanyahu to receive donations from Partridge and his cousin Nathan Milikowski. The State Comptroller's Office...