Business in Brief: Check Point in Initial Talks to Buy Cyber Ark

Check Point in initial talks to buy Cyber Ark

Cyber security giant Check Point is in initial talks to acquire Cyber Ark, sources told TheMarker. Cyber Ark, which develops software that protects against advanced cyber attacks, has seen its share price drop 45% over the past 10 months, and is now trading at a market cap of $1.2 billion. Check Point for its part is looking for growth engines, and purchased two Israeli companies last year. If the sale is completed, this would be Check Point’s largest acquisition to date. Check Point had $1.3 billion in cash as of the third quarter of last year, and could pay with a combination of cash and shares. The two companies declined to respond. (Yoram Gabison, Omri Zerachovitz and Inbal Orpaz)

Tel Aviv stocks finish with gains 

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange finished Tuesday's trading session with gains. The blue-chip Tel Aviv-25 Index gained 0.65% to close at 1,502 points, while the broader Tel Aviv-100 Index gained 0.65% as well to close at 1,291 points. The Banks-5 gained 0.5%, while the Real Estate-15 gained 0.15% and biomed shares dropped 0.8%. Total turnover was 1.329 billion shekels. Notable shares included Bioline, which gained 7.6% on the news that it would be cooperating with Merck to check the efficacy of Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda and Bioline’s pancreatic cancer treatment BL 8040. Buy2 gained 22% after announcing it signed an agreement with the Cargo Amerford group to sell the latter company for 8 million shekels in a private share placement. The sale valued Buy2 at a full 100% over its value on the stock exchange as of Tuesday. Space Communications gained 4.2% after informing the stock exchange that it had filed an insurance claim for the missing Amos 5 satellite. (Ruti Levy)