"Pitango Venture Capital managing general partner Nechemia (Chemi) Peres predicts that 10-15% of Israel's high-tech labor force will lose their jobs. "We're talking about 7,000 to 8,000 people who will be fired in high tech by the end of 2009." He made the comment during a conference at Tel Aviv University.
Peres also noted, "Anyone who thinks that it is now possible to float a company is mistaken. The investment banking crisis has shut down the stock market, which is bad news for investors. The second bad thing is that buyers are taking advantage to buy companies at low prices."
Peres called on the government to take a position on credit provided by Israeli banks, deal with education, and to participate in high-tech expenditure through the Office of the Chief Scientist or other corresponding agencies.
Other participants in the panel included Fortissimo Capital managing partner Yuval Cohen, Microsoft Israel general manager Dan Yamin, former Ministry of Finance director general Prof. Ben Zion Zilberfarb, and Dan Falk, a director at NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE), Orbotech Ltd. (Nasdaq: ORBK), and Ormat Industries Ltd. (TASE: ORMT).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 14, 2008
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