Look, most "hi tech" of business ain't - only the R&D part is. If you want to compete with Philippines on having electronic-assembly industrial-parks.... then pay Philippines wages. Is that what you want for the country?

Could it be that the technology was inferior? Even much stronger CSP companies, such as Brightsource are not doing well nowadays, and most are out of business. Low gas prices and the PV boom, you know. The owner should be happy he got that much money: it was a big loss for Siemens.

Andy Grove made the same case for Silicon Valley. Start-ups finding exits, and people getting rich on IP, does not = long term employment and regional economic stability. When the pattern is single hipsters living in hi-rent lofts in San Francisco and taking all their incomes out of San Jose, how is San Jose supposed to maintain its schools and other services?

If Israel wants to continue benefitting from its startups, there must at least be a balance between startups sold and those initiated after the sale at an equivalent level of success. This isn't possible because Israel is not alone in the world doing startups. Israeli startups compete against the best in the world, which may succeed once in a while, but most of the time the startup expense results in a loss. Investing in startups is high risk game, like poker.