Chinese in Israel

If we believe Orr Hirschauge, writing for the Wall Street Journal on the 25th, the Chinese are in Israel to invest in technology. The companies involved got my attention because one of them, Qihoo 360 Technology, is a an Internet security company, in a land of them in Israel.

Israel has several companies that we all know, two we know well, Checkpoint and Cyberark.

Checkpoint owns Zone Alarm, Protect Data, Nokia Security Appliances, and a startup in Boston called Liquid Machines, an up an coming data rights management company.

The investment company Viola is where Qihoo is going.  One their investments is Cyberark, see: [ http://www.cyberark.com/press/cyberark-files-registration-statement-proposed-initial-public-offering/ ] which specializes in security of admin and similar privileged accounts.  Another is Skybox which does security product integration across an enterprise.  There are several that specialize in VM.

The Chinese are almost always after something when they invest, and it isn't just the profits from an investment.  They start this way to get a foothold in a company.  They get to know the players and they get into business with them.  Then they hack the people they know and learn their business strategy and inside information that allows them to compete. This time, they seem to be after security, virtual machines, wireless and broadband companies, particularly new ones.   The next thing we will see will be offers of joint ventures and technology sharing agreements.  Then, they break those off and start competing directly.