ExScite

Nice ExScite’s at Nice

Haim Shani

The Israeli company NICE Systems , has announced the appointment of two ExScite members to its most senior positions (for more details see the ExScite NEWS column on the left):
Haim Shani, a vice president of Applied Materials Inc, has been appointed as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Until recently Haim was vice president at Applied Materials in Israel. Before joining Applied Materials, Shani held senior management positions at Orbotech Ltd. From 1995-1998. From 1992-1993, Shani served as president of Optrotech Europe, based out of Brussels, where he co-managed the merger between Optrotech and Orbot Europe. Previously, between 1982-1992, Shani served in management positions at Scitex Corporation Ltd and IBM Israel.
2) Lauri A. Hanover, was appointed as the company’s new senior vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining Sapiens in 1997, Hanover served for 13 years in various capacities at Scitex Israel, most recently as corporate controller. From 1982-1984, she was a senior financial analyst at Philip Morris Companies, Inc (NYSE: MO).
NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) www.nice.com headquartered in Ra’anana, Israel, is a worldwide leader of multimedia digital recording solutions, applications and related professional services for business interaction management. NICE products and solutions are used in contact centers, trading floors, air traffic control (ATC) sites, CCTV security installations and Government markets.

David Ofek- now Objet CEO

As you recall, we have reported that Scitex had invested in the Rehovot, Israel based company Objet Geometries Ltd. (www.objet.co.il) and it currently holds 19% of the company’s shares. Objet designs and sells 3D solid-modeling device based on proprietary inkjet technology, connected to CAD front-end systems.
Not un-expectedly one of our ExScite member David Ofek ofek@village.uunet.be, has been appointed the company’s CEO. David was the Australian business manager of Scitex and later came back to Israel to become the director of corporate marketing. A couple of years after he was promoted to corporate VP of marketing, he was appointed STE’s president. He left Scitex after the merger with Creo.
In addition, Dror Danai drord@objet.co.il has been appointed director of international business development of Objet in Rehovot. Dror was marketing manager at the CTP group in Scitex Israel, and later moved to STE as the director of indirect channels.

Arie Levin one of the original Scientific Technology team is the Managing Director AVX

Arie Levin (alevin@avx.co.il) one of the members of the original group that founde

d Scientific Technology in Rehovot, which later became Scitex and moved to Herzlia, is the Managing Director of the Jerusalem based AVX Israel www.avx.co.il (Subsidiary of Kyocera). The company is a manufacturer of microelectronic components: Microelectronic Thin Film components; RF Filters; RF Inductors; RF Capacitors; and SMD Micro-Fuses. They telecommunications, satellite navigation, & instrumentation markets

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Giora Bitan -managing director of Giza Ventures

Gira Bitan

Giora Bitan gbitan@giza.co.il is the managing director of Giza Ventures (www.giza.co.il) a venture capital group of Tel Aviv, Israel, managing $250M fund . Giora had a 14 years career at Scitex, first at STA and later as CFO and Executive VP of Scitex Corp. Giora is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Simo Lewis joins Intent

Simon Lewis (simonl@.intent-soft.com) has recently joined Intent (www.intent-soft.com) as Vice President Marketing & Business Development Intent is an Israeli software company founded in 1999 in Herzlia. The company is developing its UniAgent, a software product for call centers, which will be introduced to the market by Q4 2000. Simon joined Intent from Karat Digital Press where he was a member of the founding management team and served as VP Marketing & Sales. He has nine years in Israeli high tech.

Scitex Q2/2000 revenue – $53.4 million

Scitex reported Q2/2000 revenue of $53.4 million and operating income of $2.7 million BEFORE amortization of goodwill ($2.3 million) and reorganization-related costs ($3.3 million). Shares remain depressed. Creo Products Inc., in which Scitex has an equity interest of approximately 28% posted record revenues of $162.6 million in its third quarter 2000.

Globes: Sunday , Aug 20, 2000 Sun-Thu at 18:00 (GMT+3)
High Tech News

Scitex Corporation Reports Results for Second Quarter 2000By Globes correspondent

Scitex Corporation (NASDAQ: SCIX) today reported its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2000.

The transaction with Creo Products Inc., whereby Scitex merged its preprint business with Creo, closed on April 4, 2000 and generated a pre-tax gain of $191 million. The full impact of the transaction (including the resulting capital gain and transaction expenses) is included in the results for the second quarter of 2000. Details of the financial treatment of the CreoScitex transaction are provided later in this earnings release.

Quarter Highlights

The second quarter of 2000 was an extremely busy period for Scitex. In addition to the transaction with Creo, Scitex announced its new strategy, centered on building a network of leading and innovative companies that are focused on combining digital imaging technologies with the power of the Internet. The second quarter marked substantial progress in Scitex’s digital printing activities in new product introductions and business performance. At the DRUPA 2000 trade show in May, Scitex was a major participant and through its network of companies exhibited many innovative technologies and new products. In this context, Scitex made new investments in Objet Geometries Ltd., a leading developer of color three-dimensional inkjet printing applications, and InfoBit Ltd., a start-up company which develops innovative and unique visual navigation tools for the World Wide Web and corporate Intranet environments.

Consolidated Results

In the second quarter, Scitex recorded revenue of $53.4 million and operating income of $2.7 million before amortization of goodwill ($2.3 million) and reorganization-related costs ($3.3 million, included in operating expenses). Net income in the second quarter, including the gain resulting from the Creo transaction, totaled $115.0 million or $2.66 per share on a diluted basis.

Since Scitex’s involvement in the preprint business has changed from full ownership through Q1 2000 to an equity investment in Creo Products Inc. beginning Q2 2000, direct comparison of the company’s results for the second quarter of 2000 with those for the second quarter of 1999 is not meaningful.

Yoav Z. Chelouche, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scitex, said, “We are pleased with our second quarter achievements. We are on target with our business plan and are continuing to maximize the synergetic opportunities created within our network of companies, in order to generate value and growth from the convergence of digital imaging technologies with the Internet.”

DRUPA 2000

DRUPA 2000, held in Dusseldorf, is the premier show for the conventional printing and graphic arts industry and takes place every four years. Over 400,000 visitors attended this year’s show in May, with 2,000 exhibitors from 50 countries around the world. DRUPA 2000 was perceived as ‘digital DRUPA’.

Recognizing that digital printing technologies complement conventional printing, commercial printers are buying into the technology of digital printing, bringing it into mainstream. Inkjet based technologies were at the center of attention, with industrial printing being the area of greatest innovation at the show. Scitex Digital Printing, with its inkjet-based Scitex VersaMark Business Color Press, and Aprion Digital, with its MAGIC inkjet technology broadening the market applications of inkjet technologies, drew great interest.

Scitex Network Companies

Creo Products Inc., in which Scitex has an equity interest of approximately 28% posted record revenues of $162.6 million in its third quarter 2000. The company had a strong DRUPA showing and used this event to launch CreoScitex, its principal operating division. Effective May 18, the joint venture between Heidelberg and Creo was terminated, and the companies entered into an original equipment manufacture (OEM) relationship on those products that were formerly in the joint venture.

Scitex Digital Printing (SDP) – At DRUPA 2000, Scitex unveiled the Scitex VersaMark Business Color Press (BCP), the world’s highest speed 100% variable data digital color press. With extremely low operating costs per page, the BCP is set to redefine transactional printing, offering effective one-to-one marketing on financial statements, coupons and catalog pages. As SDP transitions into these new markets and launches its new products, the company recorded $35.5 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2000, a small reduction compared to $36.9 million for the same period last year. Operating income for the second quarter, before amortization of goodwill, was $1.7 million.

Scitex Wide Format Printing continued to experience fast growth, with record revenues for the second quarter of 2000 of $17.8 million, a rise of 91% compared to the second quarter last year. Operating income excluding amortization of goodwill was $2.6 million. During the quarter, Scitex Wide Format established its independent distribution activities in Europe and North America, building management teams and setting up business and logistics infrastructure. Sales of the Scitex Pressjet digital press, on which Scitex cooperates with 3M, began in this quarter.

Aprion Digital, appearing for the first time at a major trade show, had an excellent DRUPA demonstrating its MAGIC inkjet technology running on prototype printing systems. Reaching its DRUPA milestone, the company received $8 million, representing the second installment of its financing package. Initial beta placements are planned towards the end of 2000. Aprion signed a strategic distribution agreement with Scitex Wide Format Printing, an additional value added distribution partner, to bring to market its MAGIC technology.

Karat Digital Press initiated commercial shipments of the 74 Karat digital offset press and recorded first time revenue in the quarter on sales of five units. Following a strong DRUPA, Karat received ten orders. The company handles distribution in Europe through KBA and has established its own distribution and support operation in North America.

Vio Worldwide Limited, an applications service provider (ASP) for the graphic arts industry, is Scitex’s 50/50 joint venture with British Telecommunications plc. The latest quarter saw Vio expand activities in North America and add several software applications to its online suite of applications. As the company transitions from a network provider to an ASP, 20% of the latest quarter’s revenue was generated from applications.

CreoScitex Transaction

In April, Scitex closed the sale of the assets of its digital preprint business to Creo Products Inc. in consideration for 13.25 million shares of Creo. The impact of this transaction on the second quarter results is as follows:

A pre-tax gain of $191 million from the sale of the preprint business is included in ‘Other income’;
A loss of $35 million, of which $24 million is a one-time write-off of Creo in-process R&D, is included in ‘Share in losses of equity investments’; and
At June 30, 2000, the book value of the equity investment in Creo is $386 million.

Chelouche continued, “In early April, Scitex announced its new corporate strategy to dedicate itself to building a network of leading and innovative companies that are focused on combining digital imaging technologies with the power of the Internet. This strategy is based on the following business objectives:

Enhance and highlight the value of its existing activities and investment portfolio;
Invest in specialized technology companies that are revolutionizing their industries;
Leverage the complementary strengths of the existing network of companies that Scitex Corporation either owns or has an interest in; and
Add managerial depth and market knowledge to this network of companies.

“Our close adherence to this strategy is already beginning to bear fruit, and this has been reflected in the good progress achieved during the second quarter. We’ve expanded our network of companies, and strengthened our management team with the addition of Yossy Zylberberg as Chief Financial Officer. Our business model involves enhancing the value of companies within Scitex’s portfolio. As each of our network companies grows its operations, we expect to approach capital markets for either private equity investment or public equity offerings.”

Published by Israel’s Business Arena on August, 2000.

Paspartoo- an ExScite-based startup

Papartoo Logo

Paspartoo-(www.paspartoo.com)-an Israeli Internet start-up company founded in 1999, Paspartoo’s European headquarters are based in Brussels, Belgium. The vision of Paspartoo is to enlarge the print market by bringing it to a new audience. Paspartoo enables consumer designs to be realized in quality color print.Paspartoo has launched the first products at Drupa 2000. The company founders and top managers are of course our ExScitex friends:
David Amir – davida@paspartoo.com Founder and Chief Executive Officer
David Amir founded the company following a 15 year distinguished career at Scitex Corp in the fields of R&D, marketing and operations. At Scitex he most recently served as corporate Vice President at Scitex Headquarters. In that role Amir was substantially involved in creating and leading new business activities within Scitex. Previously he has held the position of Vice President Operations, Scitex Europe. Early in his career at Scitex Amir was involved in new product development as well as marketing positions both in the USA and in Europe.
Amir Kleinstern – Vice President R&D
Before joining Paspartoo, Amir Kleinstern worked at various positions in R&D and marketing at Scitex Corporation. His last assignments included heading the development of a Distributed Network Printing system for major newspapers and publications. Prior to that, he was marketing manager for Scitex Input devices in North America.
Benoit Cornet – bointc@paspartoo.com Director of Marketing
Mr. Cornet was marketing manager of services for Scitex Europe and prior to that served as manager, business intelligence at Proctor and Gamble, Europe.
Daniel Van Kerckhove – Director of Operations
At Scitex Daniel has held several technical and managerial positions, including Regional Customer Support Manager for Benelux. Before joining Paspartoo Daniel Van Kerckhove was involved at leading large scale IT implementation processes at Scitex customers.

CreoScitex Acquires Dov Berliner’s Carmel Graphics

CreoScitex acquired Carmel Graphics Systems in a $8.5 million combined cash and stock transaction. The company’s CEO and founder is the ExScite Dov Berliner

On June 6, 2000 Creo Products announced its acquisition of Carmel Graphics Systems in a $8.5 million combined cash and stock transaction. Cannel Graphics Systems is a desktop publishing, pre-press, and print-on-demand software development company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The terms of the acquisition call for six Carmel Graphics employees, including the management team, to transfer to Creos CreoScitex graphic arts division. Creo will integrate Cannel Graphics View-IT and Submit-IT technology into the Prinergy InSight browser-based proofing and job tracking tool distributed by its CreoScitex division. View-IT is an Internet-based client/server portal providing remote collaboration and observation of jobs plus support for remote proofing and approval of jobs. Submit-IT allows users to send and receive files over the Internet with job tickets, dockets, and other forms of appended information. It also tracks and logs all transactions.

Alon Lombroso becomes STE managing director

Alon moves from Hong Kong to Brussels.

Announcing New MD for CreoScitex Europe

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Alon Lumbroso as Managing Director of CreoScitex Europe. Alon is currently Managing Director of CreoScitex Asia Pacific. Alon has had a long career with Scitex Corporation, which he joined as a student in 1985. Since then he has held a variety of positions in operations, sales, marketing and management. Alon has worked in the Asia Pacific region for the last 4½ years: responsible for the region for Scitex for 3½ years, and most recently for CreoScitex. The timing of Alons transition to the Brussels office has yet to be determined. His successor for the Asia Pacific office will be announced shortly. Please join us in welcoming Alon to his new position.

Hezi Himelfarb- CEO of the Start up Remon- Medical Technologies

Remon Medical

Hezi Himelfarb (hezi@remon-medical.co.il) is the CEO of the Start up Remon- Medical Technologies Ltd located in Ceserea, Israel www.remon-medical.co.il . The company is a medical devices company, developing technology that enables non-invasive exchange of energy and data to and from the human body, including telemetry technology, applicable for many medical applications, such as disease management, monitoring and therapeutic applications. Prior to Remon Medical, Hezi was at the Scitex Israel Operations.