elron electronic industries . for the railway company see elron rail transit . elron electronic industries ltd. elron headquarters in the azrieli towers in tel aviv type public tase elrn industry medical technology telecommunications clean technology semiconductors information technology founded 1962 ; 54 years ago 1962 founder uzia galil headquarters haifa israel key people arie mientkavich chairman ari bronshtein co ceo zvika slovin co ceo website www.elron.com elron electronic industries is a technology holding company based in tel aviv israel ; since 1962 the company has been involved in setting up funding and developing over 30 companies and is considered one of the foundation stones of the high tech industry in israel . the company s sectors of interest include clean technology software semiconductors medical technology telecommunications defence and aerospace . today the combined annual revenues of the companies established by elron are approximately 5 billion . citation needed contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 founding elron 1.3 first joint venture elbit computers ltd. 1.4 founding elscint 1.5 growth during the 1980s and 1990s 1.6 2000s 2 current holdings 3 former holdings and spin offs 4 see also 5 external links 6 references history edit early years edit elron was founded in 1962 by uzia galil with the support of dan tolkowsky of the discount investment corporation . uzia galil graduated from the technion israel institute of technology in 1947 and in 1948 joined the israel navy as an officer responsible for maintaining its radio systems . in 1952 uzia was sent to study for a master s degree in electrical engineering at purdue university in the united states . during his studies in the united states he worked at motorola s research lab and was part of a team that developed of one of the world s first colour televisions . but in 1954 he had to return to israel to complete another 4 years of service in navy which financed his studies . 1 founding elron edit uzia galil short experience working for motorola in the united states exposed him to the technology industry and he decided to establish israel s first high tech startup company . he started the company while still serving in navy in a friend s benjamin sandller flat in haifa later joined by another friend gideon kirshner who was a teacher at the haifa technical high school and worked with them in his spare time . the company s first products were measurement instruments for medical and electronic applications . in 1958 uzia left the navy however the company did not generate enough revenues and he got a job at the physics laboratory of the technion ; while there moshe arens who was professor of aeronautics at the time introduced him to dan tolkowsky . dan who was fascinated by uzia s ideas managed to convince the board of discount investment corporation to provide the capital required to properly fund the company . elron was officially formed in 1962 with an initial capital of us 160 000 and within 3 years generated annual revenues of 1 millions . 1 first joint venture elbit computers ltd. edit in 1966 shimon peres who at the time was the deputy defence minister visited elron and uzia convinced him to establish a new company that will develop minicomputers for defence applications . the new company initially called elbit computers was a joint venture with the israel s ministry of defence and elron each holding 50 % of the company . the company launched its first product in 1967 the elbit 100 minicomputer . the company evolved through the years to become the multinational defence electronics company elbit systems nasdaq elbt . 1 founding elscint edit in 1969 uzia convinced a talented engineer avraham suhami who just completed his phd at the technion to join him and start a new company that will focus on the developed of medical and scientific solutions a new company elscint a contraction of the words electronic and scientific was established again with the support of dan tolkowsky . the company developed medical imaging equipment such as mri and ct scanners . in 1972 elscint was the first israeli company to have an initial public offering on nasdaq . by 1996 elscint s revenues reached 311 million . 2 growth during the 1980s and 1990s edit in 1981 elron was involved in the establishment of a company that will later become orbotech nasdaq orbk a manufacturer of equipment for the printed circuit board pcb tft & lcd display assembly industries . 3 in 1983 uzia met by chance while waiting for a flight in the lounge of ben gurion international airport levy gerzberg an academic from stanford university who in 1981 founded zoran corporation zoran stands for silicon in hebrew which develops digital signal processing solutions . at the time levy gerzberg was looking for additional funding which elron was able to provide . in 1995 zoran had an initial public offering on nasdaq nasdaq zran and today is the leading provider of complete oem solutions for consumer electronics products such as dvd and digital cameras with annual revenues of over 500 million in 2007 . 4 in 1996 elbit spun off into three independent companies 5 elbit medical imaging nasdaq emitf during 1999 and 2000 both elscint and elbit medical imaging sold their imaging activities to general electric medical systems nyse ge and to picker now part of philips medical systems nyse phg for approximately 600 million . elbit systems created as the defence electronics arm of elbit and had an initial public offering on nasdaq . elbit which focused on communications activities and in 1999 led the consortium that founded partner communications company ltd. israel s first gsm operator nasdaq ptnr . in 2002 elbit was merged into elron . elron sold its shares in partner during 2003 2006 for approximately 160 million . in 1998 given imaging nasdaq givn a developer of a video capsule for medical diagnostics was founded . 2000s edit during the 2000s elron started operating less as holding company and moved to act more as a venture capital fund jointly investing in numerous start up companies and realizing the investment by selling the companies or conducting an initial public offering . notable investments and investment exits include elron software a provider of spam email and web filtering solutions sold to zix corp. 6 oren semiconductor a fabless integrated circuits manufacturer that designs and develops integrated circuits for the digital television and set top box markets sold to zoran corporation . 7 galil medical a developer of cryotherapy solutions . 8 sela semiconductor engineering laboratories a provider of automated sample preparation tools for semiconductor manufacturers sold to camtek intelligent imaging . 8 3dv systems developers of the zcam a time of flight camera products for video applications sold to microsoft . 9 medingo developer of a micro pump insulin delivery system consists of two parts a semi disposable insulin dispensing patch and a remote control which allows for discreet personalised insulin delivery . the company was sold to hoffmann la roche s subsidiary roche diagnostics for 160 million as well as up to 40 million in milestone payments . 10 safend a leading provider of endpoint data protection solutions was sold to wave systems . 11 wavion a provider of outdoor wi fi applications for metro and rural areas acquired by alvarion . 12 current holdings edit in 2012 elron celebrated its 50th anniversary and announced that it is refocusing solely on medical devices investment . as of 2013 it has holding in 7 companies in this market including given imaging a developer of a video capsule for medical diagnostics brainsgate a medical device company developing a novel treatment modality electrical spg stimulation pocared a developer of a real time fully automated laboratory system for the microbiology market former holdings and spin offs edit elbit systems defence and aerospace group elscint an early developer of ct and mri solution elbit medical imaging elbit vision systems manufacture of computerised vision and imaging systems for in line inspection and monitoring of production processes zoran corporation a fabless semiconductor company specialising in solutions for digital tv and dvd products netmanage a software company founded in 1990 and sold in 2008 to micro focus international partner communications company ltd. a mobile and fixed line operator in israel operating under the orange brand name netvision a leading internet and telephony service provider in israel orbotech a manufacturer of equipment for the printed circuit board pcb tft & lcd display assembly industries elron telesoft a software provider for telecommunication operators sold to ectel of the eci telecom group in 2005 see also edit silicon wadi list of israeli companies quoted on the nasdaq external links edit elron electronic industries references edit a b c levav amos shevavim shel tikvah the story of the birth of israel s high tech industry published in 1998 zemorah bitan tel aviv 11 88 elscint ltd. company history fundinguniverse retrieved 2009 11 16 orbotech ltd. company profile history and background information the company history index retrieved 2009 11 16 blackburn nicky an israeli with a vision israel21c october 17 2004 retrieved 2009 11 16 elron s story technology investment with vision http www.elron.com default.asp pageid 203 elron s story technology investment with vision check url value help retrieved 2009 10 06 missing or empty title help zix corporation acquires assets and business of elron software inc. . net security . 2 september 2003 . zoran corporation agrees to acquire oren semiconductor . design & reuse . may 9 2005 . a b elron sells entire galil medical stake . globes . 15 march 10 . check date values in date help shelah shmulik 2009 06 22 . microsoft confirms 3dv acquisition . globes . tel aviv globes publisher itonut . archived from the original on 2009 06 22 . retrieved 2009 06 23 . microsoft corporate vice president of israel research & development moshe lichtman said for the first time officially that the r & d center helped microsoft in buying the intellectual property of 3dv systems and in the wake of that dozens of the company s employees were recruited to work at the development center . roche acquires insulin pump company medingo . diabetes daily . 14 apr 2010 . wave acquires safend to create dlp monolith . sc magazine . september 23 2011 . alvarion buys wifi co wavion for 30m . globes . 2 november 2011 . v t e ta 100 companies of the tel aviv stock exchange africa israel investments allot communications alvarion alrov group babylon bank hapoalim bank leumi bank mizrahi tefahot brack capital properties bazan oil refineries bezeq the israel telecommunication corp cellcom ceragon networks delek group delta galil industries discount investment corporation el al elco holdings evogene elbit systems ezchip semiconductor elron electronic industries first international bank of israel frutarom fox group gazit globe given imaging harel insurance and financial services housing & construction holding hot israel chemicals israel corporation israel discount bank isramco ituran kenon holdings kamada liveperson magic software enterprises mazor robotics mellanox technologies migdal insurance and financial holdings mivtach shamir nice systems ormat technologies osem rami levy hashikma marketing partner communications company paz oil company perion network perrigo company plasson strauss group shufersal sodastream union bank of israel teva pharmaceutical industries tower semiconductor retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title elron electronic industries & oldid 734633792 categories electronics companies of israelsoftware companies of israelinvestment companies of israelcompanies formerly listed on nasdaqcompanies based in haifacompanies listed on tasehidden categories pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having 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