Israel is no different when it comes to boarding the speeding train of globalization. Consider this: A graphic novel, Piece of Mind, written by Nimrod Frydman and illustrated by Guy Lenman, recently made headlines after winning the prestigious International Manga Award, given by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the global promotion of Manga (Japanese comics) culture.
When you think of it, these two cultures (Israel and Japan) are so entirely different from each other that one might not be able to list even 10 similarities between the two. However, it is through the power of effective language localization and translation services that such distant communities can share and engage in each other’s works of art and culture. The important factor here though is the “localization” factor that comes into play while translating inter-cultural texts or novels.
World over, successful and processional translation agencies relentlessly strive to achieve this by deploying expert native linguists for job executions, and also undertaking stringent quality checks at different levels.
Coming back to business, lately this language services industry has seen a lot of big company acquisitions as well as mergers, especially in the growing Asian and neighboring regions. And in a bid to capture the localized market of the target area/district/country, the easiest way to go about it is either to collaborate or acquire a successful translation company of that target region.
A US-headquartered company called Morningside Translations recently completed its first acquisition under Klein and Lessard, buying Israel-based Net-Translators in March 2019. However, the terms of the deal were not disclosed to the public.
Headed by co-founder and CEO Shy Avni, Net-Translators is based in Tel Aviv and operates satellite offices in the UK, US, and Argentina. Klein and Lessard confirmed that Net-Translators’ two owners will be leaving, but that all of the other “key leaders will stay on.” They said that Net-Translators was advised by BCMS Israel in the deal. “Like many other companies in Israel and all around the world, our company also works with business partners and sub-contractors in a bid to provide better services and ensure a competitive price level in an environment that requires great quality and flexibility,” said a Net-Translators company spokesperson on condition of anonymity.
It can be a good decision for Morningside geographically, since the company already has a local presence in Israel, and will now become “one of the largest language service employers in Israel,” a company press release claimed. Net-Translators’ 30-strong headcount, with tons of local experience, will join forces with Morningside’s existing staff of nearly 200 employees globally. Besides already having offices in Tel Aviv, the two companies also have some vertical alignment. Morningside competes in the IP and patents translation space alongside the likes of Welocalize, RWS, and IP service provider Questel’s MultiLing, and also has a focus on clients in life sciences and the legal sector.
Net-Translators also works in life sciences and has a sizeable presence “among medical device makers in EMEA and Asia,” Klein and Lessard said. “We have an overlap with respect to parent companies, but no direct overlap with regard to specific divisions and language service buyers,” the Morningside CEOs said. The coming together of these seemingly varied business verticals can work wonders for the combined entity in terms of capturing new business space and bigger target regions.
Post this acquisition, Net-Translators will now be called “Net-Translators – a Morningside Company.” This will help them retain the support, recognition and business of their existing customer base, while also giving the company ample scope to try out new things and explore different verticals under the umbrella of “rebranding” as an international company. The CEOs and other competent staff declined to make company information like revenues for Net-Translators public.
As a bigger entity after the completion of the process, on the one hand, there will be a sharp increase in the sales revenue of the company, and on the other hand, the company will be in a better position to streamline processes and cut duplication costs to be able to give even better pricing to their end customers. According to industry expert estimates, Morningside can look forward to achieve “between 60 million and 65 million dollars” in revenues this year.
The writer is an online entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and author, who has worked as marketing director in the TranslationLight Company for the last five years. Her website is at https://www.translationlight.com/