By Neal Sandler

Israeli press reports say South Korean electronics giant Samsung is in talks to acquire TransChip. The price tag is $100 to $150 million. If the deal is concluded, it would be the first acquisition by Samsung of an Israeli company.

Founded in 1999 the Ramat Gan-based startup focuses on imaging processors for videos and mobile devices. Among the company’s investors are Analog Devices founder and Chairman Ray Stata and Qualcomm co-founder and Chairman Andrew Viterbi.

Rosetta and BigBand IPOs

Israeli biotech company Rosetta Genomics has raised $26.3 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq. The valuation for the IPO was $79 million. The company has developed a computerized algorithm for researching microRNA gene sequences.

The next local high-tech company to go public appears to be BigBand Networks. The company develops multimedia communications servers and is looking to raise $107 million to $128 million.

A company prospectus stated that net profits in 2006 were $8.9 million on revenues of $176.6 million. Last month BigBand’s largest shareholder, ADC Telecommunications, sold its stake to Redpoint Ventures.

Israel Looks to Set up Biotech Valley

The Israeli government, along with several leading international Jewish organizations, is planning to set up a “biotech valley” in northern Israel. The joint investment in the project is estimated at $110 million.

The project will be officially presented to investors during a conference in June. The project envisages 20 biotech startups. A large existing company would be established at the initial stage.

InternetPornBillPasses First Hurdle

The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, has passed the first reading of a bill to restrict access to adult content Internet sites. The bill mandates that access to such web sites would be possible only by identity verification such as fingerprints or a smart card.

The proposed law would set heavy financial penalties for ISPs who break the law.

Startups Complete Rounds

NexPerience has raised $3.75 million in a first round of financing from Carmel Ventures. Founded in 2006 the company develops automation technology that simulates users activating data services on their own terminals.

NexPerience’s products replace manual testing of the phone by automatically activating the keypad, using pre-recorded scripts, and analyzing the screen display using a camera and sophisticated object recognition algorithms.

Mate Intelligent Video has raised $6 million in a second round of financing. The round was led by Infinity Equity Capital. Other investors include I-CSVC, Infinity’s Chinese partner.

Founded in 1997 Mate Intelligent Video sells advanced intelligent video surveillance, content analysis, and transmission for security, safety, and retail applications. The security and safety products give real-time alerts based on information from security and safety cameras.

Web 2.0 startup Yedda has raised $2.5 million in a first round of financing led by Genesis Partners. Yedda is developing a semantic search engine for analyzing questions and requests and inviting surfers to share subjective knowledge based on their experiences and opinions.

Spike in New Software Startups

An Israel Venture Capital (IVC) report found that 278 new software companies were founded in the past three years. The IVC report noted that local software startups raised $352 million in 2006, a 59 percent increase from the previous year.