Business in Brief: June 22

Visonic soars on Tyco acquisition talks ; Isracard to use cellphone as credit card.

By GLOBES
311_cellphone (photo credit: Bloomberg)
311_cellphone
(photo credit: Bloomberg)
Visonic soars on Tyco acquisition talks
By RON STEINBLATT
Electronic security systems and components developer Visonic Ltd. on Tuesday confirmed media reports that it is in acquisition talks with a subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd., at a company value of $90 million to $105m. The value reflects a 140 percent to 156% premium on Monday’s closing market cap. Visonic’s share price soared 83.2% by mid-afternoon to NIS 6.10, giving a market cap of NIS 256m.
Visonic chairman and CEO Ya’acov Kotlicki owns 71.4% of the company. The company held its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, raising $18m., at a company value of $65m. It was floated on the TASE in June 2006 and delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
Visonic has two core businesses: Home security systems and components and personal emergency-response systems manufactured in Kiryat Gat, and location systems for hospitals, prisons, museums and other large organizations.
Visonic was an acquisition target in 2008 for a few million dollars when it fell on hard times, but the buyer withdrew the offer when the global economic crisis hit. Visonic has since recovered, posting a profit of $450,000 in 2010.
Isracard to use cellphone as credit card 
By ERAN PEER BANK
Bank Hapoalim unit Isracard Ltd., the largest credit card company in Israel, will take part in a pilot to make phone payments by cellphone using NFC (near-field communications) technology. NFC works through a chip that is inserted into a cellphone, which allows the phone to be read by a special scanner. “This is the future. This technology will serve the entire market in the future,” Isracard CEO Dov Kotler told Globes.
In the next few months Isracard will issue to tens of thousands of customers a technologically advanced wireless credit card, or a wireless sticker, that attaches to the cellphone, it said. This will allow them to make payments using Mastercard’s contactless system. Customers will be able to make payments by placing the card or sticker (and in the future their cellphone) next to the POS (point of sale) device. Isracard will upgrade the payment process during the second stage of the pilot, at Super-Pharm stores and Aroma cafes.
Bank Hapoalim and Lifestyle customers (Super- Pharm’s loyalty club) will be able to participate in the pilot. They will receive a sticker with the chip, which they will place on their cellphone, or a credit card with an antenna, and the ability to transmit secure and encrypted credit-card information.