#WHITESMOKE 2013 SOFTWARE#

вЂњRecently we have met with several institutional investors, including Meitav, Phoenix, Clal and Analyst, who are interested in investing in the company, but they appraise the value of our software at zero and actually see potential in the Internet marketing field в€’ the field in which Babylon operates. They provide us with very good business.вЂќДЄlthough most of the revenues of companies like WhiteSmoke come from the traffic they generate for search engines and other Web-user traffic, what really seems to get Meroz excited is the companyвЂ™s software. Meroz doesnвЂ™t sound worried, however: вЂњItвЂ™s very convenient to work with Conduit. The dependence on Conduit is a business risk for WhiteSmoke, because of the major problem that would be created if Conduit chose to generate its traffic through other means. Most of WhiteSmokeвЂ™s toolbar traffic is linked to the website, through which traffic is directed to the Bing search engine. He is now responsible for media acquisitions at WhiteSmoke. Hanukaev countersued and the case was ultimately settled. Instead of being acquired by Babylon, WhiteSmoke ended up recruiting one of its media people, Assaf Hanukaev, which prompted Babylon to sue him. Nonetheless, BabylonвЂ™s controlling shareholder, Noam Lanir, is an indirect investor in WhiteSmoke because he has an interest in the Evolution Venture Capital Fund, one of the shareholders in the group with the 15% stake. вЂњBabylon wanted to buy us,вЂќ Meroz adds, вЂњbut the negotiations failed over the price.вЂќ It is only that 15% that is actually currently trading. Seventy shareholders from the period during which WhiteSmoke was privately held got 85% of Eldan, with the Eldan public shareholders retaining the other 15%. The limitations are among the terms under which Eldan Tech was acquired. And over the next two years they are not allowed to dilute their holdings by more than a few percentages per quarter,вЂќ he says. Meroz also acknowledges that the companyвЂ™s stock has been volatile in recent weeks: вЂњThe shareholders, who own 85% of the company, are barred from selling until July of this year. Recently, I also shut down the unprofitable media deals unit that the company had.вЂќ We were left with 10 development people and the other 30 people retained were sales and media-support people. Since I come from the accounting field, it was important to me to improve our financial ratios.

вЂњI had to make painful cuts to show that we were streamlining, and staff was cut.

вЂњThe founders of the company, Hilla and Liran Brenner, had big dreams,вЂќ Meroz recounts вЂЏ(the company was formed in 2002вЂЏ). вЂњBut now we have NIS 5.4 million in cash and are interested in doubling our revenues to NIS 100 million, which would give us annual profits of NIS 15 million.вЂќ Until he took over last year as CEO, Meroz was the companyвЂ™s chief financial officer. вЂњThe experience with the public offering nearly dragged the company into bankruptcy,вЂќ Meroz admits. The email address you have provided is already registered.

Whitesmoke 2013