Tech Roundup / Netvision Unplugs From Internet Exchange, Minnow Providers Fume
Facebook gets its Hebrew domain for free; MIT honors Israelis; Teva Pharma offers sexually active teens new relief.
Netvision makes minnows mad: Telecom company Netvision on Tuesday unilaterally disconnected from the Israeli Internet exchange (IIX), to which all Israeli Internet service providers are connected. Or were, until now. The exchange allows the providers to access sites stored with other providers and was particularly useful to the minnow providers. These small fry are smarting because – this is the upshot – their customers can't reach sites stored with Netvision. Why did Netvision do that? To economize on the cost, which came to several hundreds of thousands of shekels a year. Also, now it can demand NIS 70,000 a year from every other provider that wants to connect to it. The insanely irate minnows (such as 018 Xfone, Fast and Icomm) hope the Communications Ministry will ride to their rescue and force Netvision to reconnect to the IIX.
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Lawyer loses domain grab: A nimble lawyer who grabbed the domain facebook.co.il has been forced to forgo it for free, after an arbitrator ruled that no, Facebook didn't have to pay him $10,000 for it. Within 30 days, the site will automatically redirect to the popular social networking site founded by Mark Zuckerberg, under the Israeli Internet Association ruling. The lawyer, Gal Erel, may appeal.
Magisto claims 4 million downloads in 4 months: The Israeli startup Magisto claims its video app for Android has been downloaded 4 million times in four months, bringing its total downloads to 7 million. Founded in 2009, Magisto developed an app to edit select video clips from the gallery of clips on one's smartphone. For instance you can add music to a clip, or add narration, that sort of thing.
Younger 'uns given access to Plan B: Is Teva Pharmaceutical Industries a technology company? Let's say it is, for the sake of our Roundup, which allows us to mention that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has given the Israeli pharma behemoth its blessing to hawk morning-after pills to (charmingly known as "Plan B One-Step") to teens as tender in years as 15, without parental consent. Until now the drug had only been available over the counter to females aged 17 and up.
CloudEndure raises $5 million: Maybe it can use some of the money to change its name so it doesn't sound like a depressive lost in fog. CloudEndure, which is developing a service to ensure accessibility of web apps in the cloud, announced closing a first financing round of $5.2 million. Get what it does? No? Its technology will enable users not to notice when an app crashes because the app will be duplicated in the cloud. Business continuity is a useful thing. Founded in October 2012, the startup expects to launch a product in a matter of months. Its founders are the guys behind Acceloweb, which was sold for tens of millions of dollars (it seems) to Limelight Networks.
MIT smiles on four Israelis: Four of the ten B2B (business to business) companies that reached the final stage of the MIT business school innovation contest are Israelis. They are Capriza, CloudLock, IT Central Station, and Zerto. Founded in 2009, Zerto is developing a DRP system in the cloud. Capriza is developing a system to create enterprise apps for mobile, without programming. CloudLock (formerly known as Aprigo) is working on data security in the cloud and IT Central Station developed a site to rank enterprise software and hardware.
ClickTale scores $17 million: ClickTale has completed a $17 million second financing round, following a rather smaller $800,000 first financing round. The company, which operates largely in the shadows, makes software for websites to improve their lead to conversion rate, which means coaxing more surfers to the site who then do things like click on ads or sign up for newsletters. If you think that's small beer, think again: its clients include the likes of Procter & Gamble, Barnes & Noble, and CBS.
With writing by Yair Mohr, Orr Hirschauge, Amitai Ziv, Avishay Bassa and Inbal Orpaz
