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Taiwanese firm paying $370m for a third of Life Keeper
By Amitai Ziv

How much is a small patch that will warn of a heart attack half an hour before it happens worth? As of yesterday, the answer was $1 billion.

Israeli-owned and managed SafeSky software yesterday announced a huge deal in which it sold 37% of its Life Keeper subsidiary to the British-Taiwanese technology firm Micro-Star International for $370 million, which reflects a value of $1 billion for Life Keeper. The owners, new and old, are now planning on issuing the firm on the stock market in Hong Kong and Chicago.
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SafeSky's Life Keeper patch is at the heart of the deal. The patch is about as big as a 10-agorot coin and includes a microprocessor designed to monitor various information about the person wearing it, such as heart rate, heart rhythms, body temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar levels - and transmit the data via a Bluetooth wireless connection. The sticker, which is placed on the patient's arm or attached to a watch, can transmit a continuous data stream to a cellular phone. But the patch's real importance is that it can identify preliminary symptoms of a heart attack - and broadcast a warning to the mobile phone. The patient's phone can then send out its own warning to a number of preset contacts, such as doctors or an emergency medical service - also informing them of the patient's location using the phone's GPS device. The patch also contains a battery, 4 kilobytes of memory, software and sensors.

SafeSky's Israeli owners and founders, Arik Klein and Dr. Amos Bouchnik, each own 50% of SafeSky - before yesterday's sale. Aside from being the company's chairman, Bouchnik is also a dentist, and owns a chain of dental clinics with 16 branches in Israel. He also owns 17% of the Sialo biotech firm, and 50% of the Eshed Group media and marketing company. On top of all that, Bouchnik still practices dentistry. Klein is the firm's president, and the one behind the product's patents and algorithms.

A good friend of the prime minister

SafeSky CEO Dr. Gavriel Picker is also a dentist - and a close friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he treated as a patient in the past. The two have been friends since first grade, Picker said.

Former senior Mossad officer Hagai Hadas, responsible for the negotiations over the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, is also a director of SafeSky.

The company was founded in 2003 and operates in a number of countries around the world, including South Africa, China, Britain, Cyprus, Turkey and Israel. Its headquarters are located in Tel Aviv's Ramat Hahayal neighborhood. SafeSky's other products are in various fields, such as solar collectors.

MSI also has an option of buying another 20% of LifeKeeper at a value five times what it paid now.

MSI has 17,000 employees and $2.2 billion in revenues in 2008. Most of its operations are in computer motherboards, as well as other computer equipment, consumer electronics and medical equipment.

MSI intends to sell Life Keeper patches in a number of large markets, such as India, where many people suffer from blood sugar problems, said Picker.
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