Draft:Amir Morad
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Amir Morad is an Israeli electrical engineer and semiconductor entrepreneur. He co-founded the fabless chip companies VisionTech and Horizon Semiconductors with Leonid Yavitz. Morad served as president and chief executive officer of VisionTech, which developed real-time MPEG video- and audio-processing integrated circuits. In 2000, Broadcom agreed to acquire substantially all of VisionTech's assets in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately US$777 million when announced, or US$2 billion when the initial MOU was signed, making it the fourth- or third-largest acquisition of an Israeli company up until that point. Horizon developed multistandard high-definition video processing systems on a chip and ceased operations in 2009.
Amir Morad | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Education | Technion (PhD, 2016) |
| Known for | Co-Founding VisionTech and Horizon Semiconductors |
| Children | 3 |
Education and personal life
[edit]Amir Morad has a wife and three children. His father, Ezra, served in senior positions in the IAI Kfir and Lavi programs. Morad earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He later completed doctoral research under Professor Ran Ginosar in computer architecture, with work on multicore systems and in-memory processing architectures.[1]
VisionTech
[edit]VisionTech was founded in Herzliya in late 1996 by Morad and Yavitz, both Technion graduates, with Morad serving as CEO. The fabless semiconductor company developed integrated circuits for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video, audio and data compression for set-top boxes, digital video recorders, digital television and broadband applications.[2] In 2000, the company raised US$17 million at a valuation of US$105 million from investors including Sega, CSK and the Israeli Vertex Ventures.[3] Scientific Atlanta subsequently invested US$4 million at a reported valuation of US$250 million.[4] Among VisionTech's customers were Vestel,[3] LG, Sega,[5] Scientific Atlanta,[6] Microsoft,[7] Talia,[8] Motorola and Pace plc.[9]
VisionTech's Kfir family provided real-time MPEG-2 video and audio encoding and decoding for consumer-electronics applications.[10] The technology enabled functions such as simultaneous recording and playback, pausing live television and instant replay.[11] As of July 2000, Kfir was the most advanced MPEG-2 encoder on the market.[12]
On 28 November 2000, Broadcom announced an agreement to acquire substantially all of VisionTech's assets and liabilities for approximately 7.96 million Broadcom shares.[9][13] At the time of announcement, the deal was worth about US$776 million, making it the fourth-largest acquisition of an Israeli company up until that point. When the initial memorandum of understanding was signed, two months prior, the deal was worth US$2 billion, making it the third largest acquisition of an Israeli company up until that point.[14][15] It was renamed to Broadcom-Israel[16] and went on to serve as the basis for Broadcom's operations in Israel.[1]
Horizon Semiconductors
[edit]Morad and Yavitz later co-founded Horizon Semiconductors, a Herzliya-based fabless semiconductor company focused on integrated video-processing systems on a chip. In 2004, Horizon raised US$16 million in a Series A financing round from Jerusalem Venture Partners, Giza Venture Partners and CSK Venture Capital.[17] The company's designs supported high-definition encoding, decoding and transcoding across standards including H.264/AVC, VC-1, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2. In 2008, it introduced the Hz2010, a professional 1080p encoder integrated circuit.[18] Horizon ceased operations in 2009.[19]
References
[edit]- 1 2 ben-oz, shlomi (2016-06-01). "ללכת רחוק, ללכת עמוק". הטכניון-מכון טכנולוגי לישראל (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2026-09-23.
- ↑ Paz, Zvika (29 November 2000). "Broadcom snaps up VisionTech". Globes. Retrieved 2026-09-28.
- 1 2 ליפשיץ, רוני (17 July 2000). "חברת ויז'נ-טק השלימה גיוס של 17 מליון דולר לפי שווי של 105 מליון דולר" (in Hebrew). הארץ.
- ↑ דרור, יובל (2 August 2000). "מיקרוסופט תשלב את שבבי וויז'נטק בממירי הדור הבא של WebTV" (in Hebrew). הארץ.
- ↑ סודרי, רקפת (23 July 2000). "לאקי גולדסטאר תייצר טלוויזיה דיגיטלית על בסיס שבב של ויז'נטק הישראלית". אנליסט.
- ↑ "ויז'נטק תספק שבבי כפיר לסיינטיפיק אטלנטה". אנשים ומחשבים. 4 September 2000.
- ↑ דרור, יובל (2 August 2000). "מיקרוסופט תשלב את שבבי וויז'נטק בממירי הדור הבא של WebTV". הארץ.
- ↑ דורון, אלכס (22 August 2000). "בקרת התנועה בשבדיה - עם שבב וידאו של ויז'נטק הישראלית". הארץ.
- 1 2 "Broadcom to buy Israeli MPEG-2 encoder supplier for $777 million in stock". EE Times. 28 November 2000. Retrieved 2026-09-28.
- ↑ "Broadcom Acquires VisionTech For $777M". EDN. 7 December 2000. Retrieved 2026-09-28.
- ↑ "LG הקוריאנית בחרה בשבב הוידאו של ויז'טק". TIP4U. 23 July 2000.
- ↑ זילבר, שלום (17 July 2000). "ויז'נטק ו-FAST TV בשותפות אסטרטגית". Bizportal.
- ↑ "Broadcom Acquires VisionTech For $777M". EDN. 7 December 2000. Retrieved 2026-09-28.
- ↑ פז, מאת צביקה (2000-11-28). "לפני חודשיים 2 מיליארד, היום "רק" 800 מיליון". Globes. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ בן זקן, ג'ון (4 December 2000). "משבר הדוט.קום בישראל: 76 עובדים הולכים הביתה". אנשים ומחשבים.
- ↑ "ברודקום השיקה שבב חדשני בפיתוח ברודקום ישראל - לשעבר ויז'נטק - וואלה כסף". וואלה (in Hebrew). 2001-06-12. Retrieved 2026-09-28.
- ↑ Clarke, Peter (14 December 2004). "Compression processor firm raises $16 million in Series A". EE Times. Retrieved 2026-09-23.
- ↑ "Horizon Unveils Encoder IC". Light Reading. Retrieved 2026-09-23.
- ↑ "הורייזן סמיקונדטור נסגרת: 70 איש הולכים הביתה". Ynet (in Hebrew). 13 July 2009. Retrieved 2026-09-23.