Sun sets on Horizon, RADLive passes on

Two more Israeli technology companies have gone under this week. Herzliya-based semiconductor developer Horizon Semiconductors will be shutting its doors and letting all 80 employees go, and RADLive of Tel Aviv is shutting down too, and let go 12 of its 18 workers.

Horizon's management made the formal announcement to its employees yesterday, after its investors decided to stop pouring money into it. From its inception, Horizon had raised a total of $32 million from investors.

Horizon developed technology for video, voice and image processing semiconductors for applications such as video players, DVD and Blu-ray, web-based television and others. Rumors in Horizon hallways indicate that the reason for the company's collapse lies not in the global financial crisis, but irregularities in the firm's own financial management.

Neither the company's management nor Israeli investors, venture capital funds JVP and Giza, have commented.

According to Israel Venture Capital Research Center, Horizon was established in 2003 by entrepreneurs Amir Morad and Leonid Yavitz, and in its heyday employed 95. In addition to the Israeli venture capital funds JVP and Giza, Horizon's investors include the Japanese fund CSK, and electronics giant Hitachi.

Sources close to Horizon say that the Japanese fund, which owns a 45% stake in the company, decided to halt further investment because Horizon has yet to show any profit, but the Israeli funds were not in a position to buy out the Japanese fund's share.

RADLive's worries were precisely the global economic meltdown and the decline of the dollar. The company had been working on videoconferencing technology.