Noam Lanir, former chairman of Empire Online, announced Friday he was buying 38% of the popular translation software company Babylon, for a reported $10.5 million.
Lanir, who heads a privately owned investment group, bought out Formula Vision's 21.2% and Fishman-Monitin group's 16.8% in Babylon.
According to market analysis, Formula Vision and Monitin invested some $8 million in Babylon over the years, so they – in fact – lost on their initial investment.
Lanir now hold the controlling interest of Babylon, along with the European Reed Elsevier, which holds 23.2%.
Babylon's market value in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange currently stands on $30.96 million, but the stock does not enjoy the investors' faith: Since its IPO (Initial Public Offering) in February of 2007, the stock has been seeing a negative trend, declining some 22% in trade.