Israeli Investment Updates

The Israeli trade deficit continued to widen in June as a strong Shekel and the cost of fuel imports rose more than the growth in exports. As reported in the Jpost, “The deficit, excluding diamonds, ships and aircraft, increased to a seasonally adjusted $1.27 billion from $1.04b. a year ago, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in a preliminary report Sunday.” I have never thought trade balances mean a whole lot. So what if you run a trade deficit? As colleague Zack Miller said to me over a cup of coffee, ” Isn’t it obvious that Israel will become a net importer, as the country becomes wealthier?” Giddy up!

Microsoft (MSFT) is at it again. The Redmond based software giant has agreed to purchase another Israeli company. This time it’s data quality start-up Zoomix. According to unnamed sources in Globes, purchase price is between $20-30 million. Hey Softie, can you spare a million or two?

Hey, anyone know what’s going on at Fundtech (FNDT)? The stock has surged over the last month by more than 15% on heavy volume, in the face of strong headwinds provided by the general market. Fundtech, which provides financial transaction processing software solutions for financial institutions all over the world, has managed to continue to sign deals even as IT spending in the financial sector remains sluggish.

Part of the puzzle as to the dramatic fall in shares of BluePhoenix (BPHX) has been revealed (aside from declining revenues, foggy outlook…). It turns out that US investment group Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. sold off most of their holdings in the company. Globes reports that according to SEC filings, GGHC held 354,000 BluePhoenix shares at the end of June down from more than 2.2 million shares held at the end of Q1 ‘08. That’s a huge amount of stock hitting the market for such a thinly traded share.

Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in FNDT, BPHX. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 7/14/08.

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