2012 was a record year exits by Israeli companies, pwc Israel said today. It reports that exits by high-tech companies totaled $5.5 billion in 2012, the second highest year, after the $10 billion in 2006.
PwC Israel said that the figure does not include the acquisition of NDS Ltd. by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), because NDS is not an Israeli company, or the merger of Objet Ltd. with Stratasys Inc. (Nasdaq: SSYS). If counted, these two transactions would have added $5.7 billion to the 2012 exit total.
According to PwC Israel, the average exit transaction in 2012 was $111 million, the highest figure since 2005. There were 50 exits altogether. A breakdown by industry shows that the largest number of acquisitions was in IT and enterprise software, amounting to $1.8 billion altogether. The biggest deal was the acquisition of XtremIO by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) for $430 million.
Exits in the life sciences industry totaled $1.28 billion in 2012, and exits in the telecommunications industry totaled $1.12 billion. The Internet lagged, with $554 million in exits.
PwC Israel partner, High Tech Assurance Practice, Rubi Suliman said, "The starting point for 2013 has all the necessary components to exceed 2012. Furthermore, we believe that we will also see a bunch of interesting IPOs by Israeli companies."