Israel Desks - February 2020 Edition

22 While Yigal Arnon has been involved as buyer’s counsel in 5 of the top 10 high-tech M&A deals of the past decade, they are joined by Herzog Fox & Neeman, target counsel in two of the top 3. International firms are also prevalent, with Fenwick acting in two deals – the USD 5 billion acquisition for Cisco of NDS in 2012, and the USD 4.4 billion purchase of Playtika by a Chinese consortium in 2016. Fenwick and Kirkland & Ellis (K&E), also entrenched in the Israeli market, advised on Thomas Bravo’s USD 2.1 billion acquisition of Imperva in 2018, with K&E also advising Mazor Robotics on its acquisition by Medtronic the same year. Interest in start-ups specializing in AI technologies has soared: AI-based firms raised USD 3.7 billion in 199 deals in 2019. Eighteen deals, each over USD50 million, accounted for 55% of the amount. In 2018, AI firms raised USD2.03 billion in 166 deals while in 2012, the latest available data in the report, they raised USD170 million in 33 deals. The software sector continued to lead capital raising in 2019, reaching USD4.4 billion in 2019, an increase of almost 50% compared to 2018. Twenty-six deals, each over USD50 million, captured 58% of the total amount raised in the software sector last year. Cybersecurity companies raised USD1.88 billion, up from USD1.02 billion in 2018, and fintech companies attracted USD1.7 billion in 2019, up from USD880 million in 2018. Life sciences companies raised USD1.37 billion in 121 deals in 2019 compared to USD1.18 in 102 deals in 2018. “We see M&A in all high-tech segments, but also in traditional retail and industry sectors, and our firm is, as always, very busy in the international gaming sector,” says Hai. “We were involved in a three-way merger of our client SBTech, a provider of online sports betting and gaming platforms, with a leading U.S. fantasy sports operator – DraftKings, into a publicly listed SPAC, which is expected to have a post-closing value of over USD3.3 billion. We were also very active in the food sector, advising Froneri, a global joint-venture between Nestlé S.A. and R&R Ice Cream, on its expansion into Israel through the purchase of Osem's (Nestlé S.A.’s) Ice Cream business in Israel.” Private Equity Fiercely Compete in Israel "We are definitely seeing more and more interest from private equity, and increasingly in technology, which is also sort of a new trend. In the past, you saw the PE firms focus more on what I call older economy companies like Keter and Netafim. But we're definitely seeing more and more interest