Israel wouldn’t have earned its reputation as the Startup Nation if some of the thousands of companies that have come out of this small country hadn’t earned big bucks for their investors.
How big? Google’s parent company Alphabet has just paid out a whopping $32 billion to purchase cybersecurity company Wiz, making it the largest acquisition in both Israel and Google’s respective histories.
The purchase knocks Jerusalem-based Mobileye off the top spot, after if was bought by Intel for $15.3 billion in 2017.
The news about Wiz certainly focused worldwide attention once more on Israel’s lively high-tech sector, which despite experiencing a slump related to the war in Gaza, and the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, continues to develop at an extraordinary pace.
While we don’t know what the rest of 2025 will bring, ISRAEL21c compiled a list of the 15 largest startup acquisitions in Israeli history below. Plus, as a bonus, the acquisition that put the Startup Nation on the map in the first place.
15 Biggest Israel tech acquisitions
- Wiz
- Mobileye
- Frutarom
- NDS
- Chromatis
- Mercury Interactive
- Playtika
- Orbotech
- SodaStream
- Imperva
- Mazor Robotics
- M-Systems
- Waze
- Neuroderm
- Trusteer
1. Wiz: $32 billion, 2025
In March, Google’s parent company Alphabet agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion, marking not only the largest acquisition in Israel’s history, but also the largest acquisition in Google’s history, and the largest acquisition ever in cybertech also.
Wiz, which was only founded in 2020, is a specialist in cloud-security, and has seen meteoric growth in this time. As of November last year, the unicorn employed 1,995 people across the US and Europe, with most engineers based in Tel Aviv.
The company was first approached by Google in 2023, which offered to pay $23 billion, but Wiz ultimately rejected the deal over over anti-trust issues.
The company, which was founded by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak, today works with many of the top Fortune 100 companies.
Google’s record purchase of Wiz is a clear indication that it aims to bolster its cloud security capabilities.
2. Mobileye: $15.3 billion, 2017
With the market for self-driving cars heating up, semiconductor giant Intel found itself with no play against Google, Tesla, Apple and other leaders in the space. So in 2017 the company announced its buyout of Jerusalem-based Mobileye, innovator of vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems, which is developing some of the most sophisticated technology to power tomorrow’s autonomous vehicles.
3. Frutarom: $7 billion, 2018
Ever wonder where that soft drink gets its flavor? Or where the fragrance for your favorite perfume comes from? There’s a good chance Israeli powerhouse Frutarom had something to do with it.
Established in 1933, Frutarom was the sixth largest food flavorings maker in the world until 2018, when International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) acquired the company in a $7.1 billion transaction, making it the second largest acquisition ever in the startup nation.
IFF – now the largest flavoring company in the world – picked up Frutarom’s production plants in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, China and Morocco. Frutarom marketed over 70,000 products in 150 countries, employing 5,600 people before the Israeli acquisition. Flavors for natural products constituted 75 percent of the company’s sales.
4. NDS: $5 billion, 2012
Jerusalem-based NDS, founded in 1988 as News Datacom, makes software and hardware (such as secure set-top boxes) for pay TV providers and was listed on Nasdaq before it was acquired in 2009 for $3.6 billion by London-based private equity firm Permira and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
In 2012, Cisco Systems, a maker of network switches and routers, bought NDS for $5 billion to become a player in the video-on-demand market. But as consumers gravitated to cloud-based video and streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix, there were massive layoffs at Cisco’s NDS unit and in 2018 the division was sold back to Permira for $1 billion, just one-fifth what Cisco paid six years before.
5. Chromatis: $4.7 billion, 2000
When US-based communications equipment giant Lucent bought Chromatis in 2000, it was at the time the largest acquisition ever in Israeli history. But just a year later, Lucent shut down its Chromatis unit and laid off 130 employees, citing lack of demand for Chromatis products, which alleviated bottlenecks in the “last mile” of networks connecting telephone exchanges and customers. Lucent decided to focus on large telephone companies vs. the small customers that were Chromatis’s main business.
However, the Chromatis acquisition put its seed investor – Jerusalem Venture Partners – on the map and helped launch the political career of JVP founder Erel Margalit (these days, known as the man working to heal Israel’s high-tech industry).
6. Mercury Interactive: $4.5 billion, 2006
While consumer-facing technology tends to capture readers’ attention, it’s business-to-business products and services that are the bread and butter of the startup nation. It’s no wonder, then, that Israeli tech firm Mercury Interactive made one of the country’s most successful exits when HP acquired the IT company in 2006.
Mercury makes the kind of behind-the-scenes applications everyone uses but rarely talks about: software for application delivery and management, change and configuration services, quality assurance and IT governance. Mercury’s products became part of HP’s Software Division until 2017 when they were sold off to UK-based Micro Focus.
7. Playtika: $4.4 billion, 2011
There are two main types of gaming companies: those that make shoot-em-up video games and those that make online casino games. Israel’s Playtika, a leader in the second category, was acquired in 2011 by the Caesar’s Interactive Entertainment, part of the Caesar’s casino chain. Later in 2016, a consortium of Chinese companies paid $4.4 billion for Playtika, after closing an agreement with Caesar’s to acquire the Israeli company.
Playtika games, including the World Series of Poker Texas Holdem Game, downloaded more than 5 million times in 2024 so far, are among the top grossing and most downloaded games. Playtika has completed 10 acquisitions of its own, mostly in the Israel and United States, in mobile gaming and mobile advertising.
8. Orbotech: $3.4 billion, 2018
Orbotech has claimed that “virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using Orbotech systems.” Silicon Valley-based semiconductor giant KLA-Tencor apparently agreed and in 2018, made a play to acquire Orbotech for $3.4 billion. The Israeli company works behind the scenes helping to build the printed circuit boards, flat panel displays and electro-mechanical systems consumers rely on today.
9. SodaStream: $3.2 billion, 2018
In 2014, Israeli carbonated beverage manufacturer SodaStream was struggling. The company, which sells a countertop machine for make-your-own carbonated drinks, was seeing sales and profit drop as consumers turned away from sweet soft drinks. CEO Daniel Birnbaum refocused the company to offer healthier flavors (including plain soda water) and emphasized the environmental benefits of its reusable bottles.
Actress Scarlett Johansson was hired as celebrity pitch person and the company’s business rebounded – so much so that once-rival PepsiCo acquired the company for $3.2 billion in 2018. PepsiCo committed to keeping SodaStream in Israel for at least 15 years although PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said it could remain in Israel “forever.”
10. Imperva: $2.1 billion, 2018
Cybersecurity is one of Israel’s strongest sectors – there are an estimated 450 cybersecurity startups in the country – and one that has seen significant acquisition action. Symantec acquired Fireglass and Skycure, both for around $250 million each; Continental picked up Argus Cybersecurity for $450 million; and Palo Alto Networks paid $130 million for Lightcyber.
But none of those compare with private equity technology investment firm Thoma Bravo’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Imperva in 2018. The award-winning company makes a suite of products to help organizations protect customers from cyberattacks through all stages of their digital transformation.
11. Mazor Robotics: $1.64 billion, 2018
Born in 2001 in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology lab of Prof. Moshe Shoham, Mazor Robotics eventually evolved into an epic Israel tech acquisition when it caught the eye of the world’s largest medical device company, Medtronic. Medtronic purchased Mazor Robotics for $1.64 billion in 2018. At the time the deal was announced, it set a record for the highest-ever acquisition price for an Israeli medical company. Medtronic is the sole distributor of the Mazor robotic guidance system that improves outcomes in spine and brain surgery.
12. M-Systems: $1.5 billion, 2006
Israeli tech firm M-Systems invented the concept of a small, portable memory (USB) stick. Released in 2000 as the DiskOnKey, it drew the attention of SanDisk, which acquired the company in 2006.
Flash drives eventually contributed to the demise of both floppy disks and CD-ROMs in personal computers. M-Systems founder and CEO Dov Moran has been a serial entrepreneur for most of his career, but never found the same level of success as he did with M-Systems.
13. Waze: $1.1 billion, 2013
Israelis are impatient. If there’s a shortcut, we’ll take it. So it’s not surprising one of the biggest acquisitions in Israeli history involves a company that helps commuters save time on the road.
Waze uses GPS sensors on users’ smartphones and the power of the crowd to create real-time updated traffic maps and turn-by-turn directions.
Google decided it wanted to drive in Waze’s fast lane, too, and acquired the company in 2013.
Rather than integrating Waze into Google Maps, Google committed to keeping Waze a separate brand (headquartered in Israel, no less) while making Google Maps smarter with some of Waze’s data.
14. Neuroderm: $1.1 billion, 2017
The search for an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease is increasing as the world population ages. Israeli pharmaceutical firm Neuroderm makes a system for self-administered continuous subcutaneous infusion of the gold standard levodopa/carbidopa, designed to be a user-friendly system enabling people with Parkinson’s disease to maintain steady therapeutic levodopa plasma concentrations. In 2017, NueroDerm was sold for $1.1 billion to Japanese pharmaceutical giant Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.
15. Trusteer: $1 billion, 2013
The second largest cybersecurity exit on our list, IBM acquired Israel’s Trusteer in 2013, seven years after the company was founded. Trusteer – now part of IBM’s Boston-based computer security division – makes products that block online threats from malware and phishing attacks, and alert customers immediately.
The company built a worldwide presence – including operations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Japan and China – before IBM made its bid.
Bonus — Mirabilis: $287 million, 1998
While not the largest acquisition in Israeli tech history, AOL’s 1998 acquisition of Mirabilis, the company behind ICQ, in many ways kickstarted the Startup Nation. Long before WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger came to dominate the messaging scene, Mirabilis developed one of the first Internet chat products.
The acquisition also launched Yossi Vardi’s career as the “godfather of high-tech” investing in Israel through what Forbes magazine once dubbed “the Mirabilis Effect.” Vardi has helped establish no fewer than 85 high-tech companies over nearly 50 years.
It was Vardi’s son Arik who cocreated ICQ. Dad put up the initial money and has been seeding startups ever since. “We have always been very good at seeding, whether in agriculture with tomatoes or high-tech,” Vardi says. “The underlying ecosystem, the spirit of the people, is somehow part of our genetic and cultural DNA.”
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