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Medvedev. Expressed interest?
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Medvedev gets offer to buy ECI

Israeli telecom provider confirms businessman Shaul Shani sent Russian president a letter suggesting that he purchase company for $2.5B

Israeli businessman Shaul Shani has sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, proposing that he buy 100% of the ECI telecom company for $2.5 billion, a Russian news website reports.

 

New website CNEWS, which obtained the letter, reported that a Russian organization for financial assistance was behind the initiative to sell the company to Russia. The organization's deputy chairman, Mikhail Esipov, noted that ECI was the only telecom company to provide Russia with its full technology and codes for all of its software.

 

Russian sources have estimated that many companies would be able to set up research and development centers based on ECI's technologies, and that this would seriously stimulate the Russian high-tech industry.

 

According to Esipov, Medvedev received the letter and has already instructed the Russian government to look into Shani's offer and reach a decision on the matter with the local ministry of communications.

 

Shani, who heads the Swarth fund, bought 100% of ECI's shares in 2007 together with Dutch partners for $1.24 billion.

 

In 2007, the company presented a net income of $4.7 billion, and the forecast for 2010 stands at $11.7 billion. The 2011 forecast stands at $25.9 billion, according to Russian sources. The company employs some 2,500 workers, about 1,600 of them in Israel.

 

An ECI spokesman confirmed that the letter had been sent, saying that "in the past years the company has received a number of appeals from global companies for strategic cooperation of various kinds. The appeals are being looked into regularly by the company."

 

Sources in the company said the letter was sent to the Russian president after he approached ECI.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.28.10, 14:37
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