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91-407: In 2024, Verint has approximately 10,000 clients in more than 175 countries, and approximately 3,700 employees around the globe, plus a few hundred contractors in various locations internationally. The company was previously a majority-owned subsidiary of Comverse Technology and it was formerly known as Comverse Infosys. In February 2013, Verint Systems became independent of Comverse, having bought out

182-475: A public company , although it was still majority owned by Comverse Technology. Since 2006 Verint has acquired several other companies such as MultiVision Intelligent Surveillance Limited, a networked video security business; CM Insight Limited, a UK-based, customer management company; Mercom Systems Inc., an interaction recording and performance evaluation company; ViewLinks Euclipse Ltd., a provider of data mining and link analysis software; and Witness Systems, Inc.

273-680: A Jewish businessman who left Germany in 1934 after the Nazis had come to power, bought the paper in December 1935. Schocken was active in Brit Shalom , also known as the Jewish–Palestinian Peace Alliance, a body supporting co-existence between Jews and Arabs which was sympathetic to a homeland for both peoples. His son, Gershom Schocken , became the chief editor in 1939 and held that position until his death in 1990. The Schocken family were

364-418: A government-funded body, and banned government advertising with the newspaper. According to The Guardian , Haaretz "had published a series of investigations of wrongdoing or abuses by senior officials and the armed forces , and has long been in the crosshairs of the current government." The newspaper's editorial policy was defined by Gershom Schocken , who was editor-in-chief from 1939 to 1990. Schocken

455-500: A lot of the people at Haaretz , and many of its positions, but the cartoonish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism can be grating." In 2022, a TGI survey found that Haaretz was the newspaper with the third largest readership in Israel, with an exposure rate of 4.7%, below Israel Hayom 's rate of 31% and Yedioth Ahronoth 's 23.9%. Haaretz uses smaller headlines and print than other mass circulation papers in Israel . Less space

546-713: A lower-price solution for lower-traffic networks, where it competed with Logica 's Telepath solution. Other companies in the SMSC space included CMG and Openwave . ISMSC found considerable market penetration, exemplified by all six of Hong Kong 's wireless carriers using it. Comverse also became a participant in forming international wireless standards, such as in 2001 for the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) markup language for XML to add voice capabilities to web-based applications. Additional industry standards groups in which Comverse has been active include

637-458: A meeting in New York, Misholi had the idea of building a business around centralized hardware systems to support voice and fax messaging and selling them to telecommunications companies and other large enterprises, who could then resell the voice and fax services to their customers. The three quickly returned to Israel and started the company, with the goal of securing Israeli government grants to fund

728-424: A new headquarters. In October 2010, Comverse Technology finally published its restated financial reports for fiscal years 2005 through 2008. (The company's fiscal year N ran from February of year N to January of N+1.) They revealed that the company lost about $ 1 billion during that period. In February 2011, the company announced that due to this effort, its report for fiscal 2009 would be delayed, and also that it

819-570: A newspaper sponsored by the British military government in Palestine . In 1919, it was taken over by a group of socialist-oriented Zionists , mainly from Russia . The newspaper was established on 18 June 1919 by a group of businessmen including the philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg , initially called Hadashot Ha'aretz ("News of the Land"). Later, the name was shortened to Haaretz . The literary section of

910-444: A number of awards within its industry, including: Haaretz Haaretz ( Hebrew : הָאָרֶץ lit.   ' The Land [of Israel] ' , originally Ḥadshot Haaretz – Hebrew : חַדְשׁוֹת הָאָרֶץ , IPA: [χadˈʃot haˈʔaʁets] lit.   ' News of the Land [of Israel] ' ) is an Israeli newspaper . It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper

1001-613: A pure-play customer engagement vendor. Having divested its cyber intelligence and defense offerings, Verint now focused on developing customer engagement and CX automation solutions for the civilian market, including banking, insurance, public safety/sector, retail, and telecommunications organizations. An article published in Haaretz alleges Verint had "faced backlash" for selling surveillance technology to "repressive regimes" for several years. On February 2, 2021, Amnesty International reported that an Israeli subsidiary of Verint had "provided

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1092-451: A shutdown possible. In October 2010, Comverse Technology agreed to sell its two-thirds ownership of its Ulticom subsidiary to a U.S. private equity firm for $ 90 million; the deal closed in December 2010. The company also sold part of its holdings in Verint, netting $ 80 million, and sold for $ 27 million land in the hi-tech area of Ra'anana , north of Tel Aviv, where it had been planning to build

1183-591: A similar case against Ulticom was also reached. The failure to file timely financial reports put the company at risk of having its stock registration revoked; a process deciding this, involving the SEC and an Administrative Law Judge , was still active of 2011. The financial crisis of 2008 and on caused further difficulties for Comverse Technology, with new layoffs occurring in October 2008, March 2009, and August 2009. The company reportedly lost considerable money in 2009, and

1274-571: A staff writer that said the Israeli religious right was worse than Hezbollah . Condemnation followed, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , President Reuven Rivlin , and other government ministers and MPs , as well as from Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog . On 31 October 2024, Haaretz 's publisher Amos Schocken made remarks during a speech at a Haaretz conference in London criticising

1365-909: A stock options backdating scandal in 2006, parent company Comverse Technology suffered a series of financial reporting problems, losses and layoffs, with one consequence that both Comverse and Verint were delisted from the NASDAQ stock market in 2007 and ended up on the Pink Sheets . In July 2010, Verint was relisted on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol VRNT. By that year, there was considerable talk that Comverse Technology would sell its remaining interest in Verint, with some private equity firms mentioned as possible buyers. In September 2011, Verint acquired Global Management Technologies Corporation, paying around $ 25 million for it. In August 2012, Verint announced that it would buy out Comverse Technology's stake in it, in

1456-732: A transaction valued at around $ 800 million. An FBR Capital Markets analyst said the move "finally eliminates a major overhang on the name by removing Comverse's majority ownership stake." The deal was finalized in February 2013. In January 2014, the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police awarded Verint a contract worth $ 14.2 million to develop the new Interception System Switzerland ISS 2 wiretapping system . On February 3, 2014, Verint Systems completed acquisition of KANA Software Inc . from Accel-KKR for $ 514.2 million. On November 16, 2016, Verint Systems completed acquisition of

1547-566: A turnaround. During 2012 and 2013, Comverse Technology divested itself of all its holdings and ceased to exist. The two independent companies that carried on its most well-known product lines were a newly independent Comverse, Inc. and Verint Systems . After further mergers Comverse, Inc. became Xura in 2015 and then Mavenir in 2017, while part of the Comverse business went to Amdocs in 2015. Comverse Technology had multiple subsidiaries, many of which are still in business. Their activities at

1638-414: A union strike mobilized to protest planned layoffs by the Haaretz management, causing a one-day interruption of Haaretz and its TheMarker business supplement. According to Israel Radio , it was the first time since 1965 that a newspaper did not go to press on account of a strike. On 24 November 2024, the Israeli government ordered a boycott of Haaretz by government officials and anyone working for

1729-443: A variety of other markets, including developing countries such as Mexico and China for its Trilogue virtual telephone service. Gradually its product emphasis shifted more from hardware to software. While headquartered in the U.S., nearly all its manufacturing was done in Israel, where it was able to substantially benefit from government subsidies and tax credits provided to research and development for hi-tech firms and industries by

1820-434: A workforce optimization company. In July 2008 Amit Bohensky founded Focal-Info, a software company focused on web data extraction and analytics. The following month Focal-Info had been bought by Verint for an undisclosed amount, with Bohensky hired back on to lead Focal-Info's "extended activity" within Verint. A subsequent acquisition was of Iontas, in early 2010, a provider of desktop analytics solutions. Beginning with

1911-400: Is devoted to pictures, and more to political analysis . Opinion columns are generally written by regular commentators rather than guest writers. Its editorial pages are considered influential among government leaders. Apart from the news, Haaretz publishes feature articles on social and environmental issues, as well as book reviews, investigative reporting, and political commentary. In 2008,

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2002-550: Is published in Hebrew and English in the Berliner format, and is also available online. In North America , it is published as a weekly newspaper , combining articles from the Friday edition with a roundup from the rest of the week. Haaretz is Israel's newspaper of record . It is known for its left-wing and liberal stances on domestic and foreign issues. As of 2022, Haaretz has

2093-825: The BBC said that Haaretz takes a moderate stance on foreign policy and security. David Remnick in The New Yorker described Haaretz as "easily the most liberal newspaper in Israel", its ideology as left-wing and its temper as "insistently oppositional". According to Ira Sharkansky , Haaretz ' s op-ed pages are open to a variety of opinions. J. J. Goldberg , the editor of the American The Jewish Daily Forward , describes Haaretz as "Israel's most vehemently anti- settlement daily paper". Stephen Glain of The Nation described Haaretz as "Israel's liberal beacon", citing its editorials voicing opposition to

2184-508: The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization in order to obtain purchase orders and had been inaccurately reported as sales commissions in Comverse's accounting. During the first half of 2011, analysts such as Oppenheimer & Co. , J.P. Morgan and Barclays said that with its accounting problems largely behind it, some restructuring done, and an improving cash balance and some revenue growth, Comverse Technology

2275-652: The Office of the Chief Scientist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and by the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation . Many other Israeli companies were built by the same model, including another top software company, Mercury Interactive . During the 1990s, Comverse received at least 69 research and development grants from the OCS program. In 1993,

2366-505: The Open Mobile Alliance and TM Forum . In addition to growing organically, Comverse Technology began acquiring other companies in both Israel and the U.S. It acquired Dale, Gesek, McWilliams, & Sheridan, later known as DGM&S Telecom, in 1996 and renamed it Ulticom in 1999. Comverse Technology acquired one of its key rivals, Boston Technology , for $ 843 million in stock in 1997. The acquisition gave Comverse entree into

2457-622: The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), all related to alleged options backdating or other actions related to stock options between 1998 and 2006. The accusations against the three included the backdating of options to when Comverse stock had been trading at low prices,

2548-422: The instant messaging specialist Odigo for $ 20 million in 2002, after having previously purchased a 12 percent stake in it in 2001. The image of Comverse Technology as Israel's blue-chip hi-tech stock suffered, and led to a slide in several other large Israeli technology firms. Comverse's management was criticized by analysts for having issued over-optimistic forecasts, although many other Israeli firms in

2639-560: The Netanyahu government for allegedly imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinian population and referring to "Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists." In response, the Israeli interior , education , diaspora ministries severed ties with Haaretz while the Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi advocated a boycott of the newspaper covering all government bodies and employees. By 4 November,

2730-511: The Palestinian territories and elsewhere, and blogs covering a range of political standpoints and opinions. The two sites fall under the supervision of Lior Kodner, the head of digital media for the Haaretz Group. Individually, Simon Spungin is the editor of Haaretz.com (English) and Avi Scharf is the editor of Haaretz.co.il (Hebrew). The Haaretz building is on Schocken Street in south Tel Aviv . The former Haaretz building of 1932–1973

2821-594: The SEC. Its stock was delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market on 1 February 2007, and removed from the S&;P 500 and NASDAQ-100 at the same time. The stock then traded on the Pink Sheets . In 2009, the SEC settled its case with Comverse Technology; the company would not be subject to penalty fines over the backdating matter, but would accept a permanent injunction against itself regarding any future violations of law regarding publicly traded companies. A settlement in

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2912-607: The South Sudanese authorities, including the NSS [National Security Services], with communications interception equipment and annual support services" between 2015 and 2017. The NSS has a record of "harassing, intimidating, threatening, arbitrarily detaining and, in some cases, forcibly disappearing and extra-judicially killing" critics of the government. In its report, Amnesty said it "believes that this [sale] goes against Israel’s obligation to protect human rights." Verint's products include

3003-631: The Supreme Court, very critical of Netanyahu's government". Others describe it alternatively as liberal , centre-left , left-wing , and the country's only major left-leaning newspaper. The paper opposes retaining Israeli control over the Palestinian territories and consistently supports peace initiatives. The Haaretz editorial line is supportive of weaker elements in Israeli society, such as sex workers, foreign laborers, Israeli Arabs , Ethiopian immigrants , and Russian immigrants . In 2006,

3094-465: The United States, as a newspaper of record . In 2007, Shmuel Rosner , Haaretz 's former U.S. correspondent, told The Nation , "people who read it are better educated and more sophisticated than most, but the rest of the country doesn't know it exists." According to Hanoch Marmari, a former Haaretz editor, the newspaper has lost its political influence in Israel because it became "detached" from

3185-492: The Verint Open Platform, which incorporates AI and behavioral data from customer interactions, along with numerous AI-powered bots and applications for customer engagement. The platform is modular, allowing organizations to selectively implement bots to align with specific business priorities. The platform supports traditional contact centers as well as contact center as a service (CCaaS) models. Automated workflows support

3276-615: The allegations, and in the years since, there have been no legal or commercial actions of any type taken against Comverse by the FBI or any other branch of the US Government related to data access and security issues. While no real evidence has been presented against Comverse or Verint, the allegations have become a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists . By 2005, the company had $ 959 million in sales and employed over 5,000 people, of whom about half were located in Israel. That country held most of

3367-513: The carrier market for some of Comverse's products and services. By 2009, the company's upper management was now largely American rather than Israeli, Dahan was under internal criticism, and there were frequent clashes regarding company culture. In early 2010, Comverse Technology planned to release an annual report with full financial statements and return to being fully listed on Nasdaq, but anticipated more layoffs. One piece of positive news in July 2010

3458-641: The company at risk of having its stock being delisted completely. CEO Dahan said simply, "These are challenging times." By August 2010, analysts were stating that Comverse Technology might have to break up by selling off its subsidiaries and spin off Comverse's own business units. Running low on cash, Comverse Technology engaged Goldman Sachs to explore such possibilities, with several large, well-known technology companies potentially interested in Comverse and some private equity firms possibly interested in Verint. The company had some 4,000 employees, and continued having about half of them employed in Israel and most of

3549-479: The company current with its annual audited reporting. Revenues rose to $ 1.63 billion while the company's net loss was halved to $ 132.3 million, and the cash position was now stated as being sufficient to meet foreseeable needs. Another positive sign for its recovery came when it was re-listed on NASDAQ in September 2011. In April 2012, results for fiscal 2011 were announced; revenues remained flat at $ 1.59 billion while

3640-459: The company released an Internet Call Waiting service. In 1999, Comverse Infosys was combined with another division of Comverse focused on security and the communications interception market. In 2001, Verint expanded into video security by combining with Loronix Information Systems, Inc., which had been previously acquired by Comverse. In 2002, Comverse Infosys changed its name to Verint Systems Inc. In May 2002, Verint completed an IPO and became

3731-445: The company reported a 341 percent rise in profits on revenues in the $ 64 million range and was named a "Company to Watch" by Fortune magazine. However its stock plunged for a while in 1994 after a disappointing earnings report. By 1995, Comverse was best known for its AudioDisk product, which was sold to overseas clients and allowed legal authorities and intelligence agencies to record and store data collected from wiretaps. Half

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3822-455: The company was delisted from Nasdaq, removed from the S&;P 500, and spent the next several years consumed by the costly need to restate its financial reports for several years. Additionally affected by the financial crisis of 2008 and on and changes in the mobile phone market, the company underwent several rounds of large-scale layoffs and sold off parts of its business. By 2011 the company began

3913-522: The company was not regarded positively by some in the Israeli business press. The new CEO was Charles Burdick, who had been non-executive chairman of the company. Burdick became the first American to head the company. In April 2011, the company agreed to a $ 2.8 million settlement with the U.S. government over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that had taken place between 2003 and 2005. Payments of $ 536,000 had been made to

4004-437: The company's net loss decreased again, to $ 58.7 million. In August 2012, a series of transactions were announced that would end Comverse Technology as a functioning entity, by making Comverse Network Systems an independent company once again known simply as Comverse, allowing Verint Systems to buy back Comverse Technology's majority stake, and selling off the other subsidiaries. Burdick said, "[The Verint] agreement, along with

4095-478: The company's revenues at that point were from AudioDisk, and market analysts were recommending Comverse's stock. Comverse became a market leader in voice messaging software and boomed during the late 1990s with the surge in mobile phone use. Much of its market focus was on wireless operators and overseas companies, and it gained a formidable position in the worldwide mobile voicemail management market. The growth coincided with SMS text messages becoming popular;

4186-781: The country's political life. Andrea Levin , executive director of the pro-Israel Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), said Haaretz was doing "damage to the truth" and sometimes making serious factual errors without correcting them. According to The Jerusalem Post , Haaretz editor-in-chief David Landau said at the 2007 Limmud conference in Moscow that he had told his staff not to report on criminal investigations against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in order to promote Sharon's 2004–2005 Gaza disengagement plan . In April 2017, Haaretz published an op-ed by

4277-399: The customer experience software company OpinionLab for an undisclosed amount. On December 19, 2017, Verint Systems completed acquisition of the intelligent virtual assistant company Next IT for $ 30 million cash plus up to $ 21 million in future payments. On February 1, 2021, Verint spun off its cyber intelligence division as Cognyte, an independent company catering to governments, to become

4368-425: The digital monitoring and recording products, respectively. By 2000, its revenues were $ 1.2 billion and it had global operations. It continued to aggressively acquire small companies to fill out its technologies, as exemplified by the purchase of Loronix, Gaya Software, and Exalink, all within a 30-day period in 2000. The company's stock price rose from around $ 10 in late 1998 to over $ 120 in early 2001. The company

4459-488: The effective liquidation of the Comverse Technology holding entity. Further actions followed the end of Comverse Technology. During June 2015 Comverse divested its BSS business to Amdocs. In September 2015 after a merger this new Comverse entity changed its name to Xura , then after a further series of acquisitions and mergers in February 2017 it became part of Mavenir . Over the years, Comverse Technology won

4550-440: The enterprise software sector that were also closely followed. ) The company was also quintessentially Israeli in how it was run, with Comverse CEO Ze'ev Bregman in particular favoring a loose, relaxed system in which he knew all the employees and lines of management reporting were frequently bypassed. When Comverse Technology joined the S&P 500 index in 1999, it was the first Israeli-associated company ever to do so. It set

4641-652: The first big application for SMS was as a notification mechanism to tell a wireless subscriber that voicemail were stored in a voicemail box. Comverse expanded this application into a full-blown short message service center (SMSC), which receives, buffers, processes, and dispatches all SMS messages throughout a mobile network. Comverse branded and productised this as the Intelligent Short Message Service Center, or ISMSC. Typical of telecomm software, it ran on Unix -based platforms, such as UnixWare and later Linux . Comverse's ISMSC found success as

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4732-565: The industry did even worse or failed completely during this period. In addition, the European market for mobile voicemail management was already saturated by 2002 and the prepaid wireless market was in decline. In 2002, Comverse Infosys changed its name to Verint, partly to separate its more thriving business from Comverse's struggles, and staged a modestly successful IPO of a minority portion of its stock. By 2002, Comverse Technology had more than 5,000 employees across nearly 40 countries; due to

4823-422: The large U.S. telecommunications market and meant Comverse would be supplying voice messaging systems to 12 of the world's top 20 carriers, and left it the third-largest supplier after Lucent and Northern Telecom . In 1999, as it saw record earnings, Comverse formed two wholly owned subsidiaries, Comverse Network Systems and Comverse Infosys, representing the telecommunications services platforms and products and

4914-456: The latter's stake in it. Verint started as Comverse Technology 's Comverse Infosys business unit, which was created in 1999 although it was also incorporated in Delaware in February 1994 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Comverse Technology . Verint's initial focus was on the commercial call recording market, which at the time was transitioning from analog tape to digital recorders. On June 7, 1999,

5005-406: The mid-1990s, one of its most successful products allowed legal authorities and intelligence agencies to record and store data collected from intercepted communications. Starting in the late 1990s, Comverse's voice messaging software became its main product and the company grew rapidly with the surge in mobile phone use, passing the $ 1 billion mark in revenues. It established a formidable position in

5096-532: The most visible and was labeled by a pair of financial writers a "poster child for stock option fraud." Recovery from the scandal was difficult. The three charged executives, who had stayed on as consultants, were fired without severance pay, and the company said it would pursue legal action against them. The board of directors was expanded from five to ten, with all new ones being Americans rather than Israelis. A new CEO, Andre Dahan , came on board in April 2007 but

5187-436: The moves were typical of other hi-tech companies caught in the bad economic environment. Some of Comverse's products were still viewed highly; a Yankee Group survey ranked them first in the world in their type of billing services, and they were the worldwide market-share leaders in providing multimedia message service centers to wireless carriers. However, the rise in popularity of smartphones and of sending e-mail eroded

5278-539: The newspaper had received hundreds of cancellation and subscription termination requests, and a decline in advertising revenue. Several ministries had requested to cancel their subscriptions, with the Israeli foreign ministry cancelling 90 subscriptions. Following significant criticism, Schocken retracted his remarks. Haaretz operates both Hebrew and English language websites. The two sites offer up-to-the-minute breaking news, live Q&A sessions with newsmakers from Israel,

5369-767: The newspaper itself reported a paid subscribership of 65,000, daily sales of 72,000 copies, and 100,000 on weekends. The English edition has a subscriber base of 15,000. Despite its historically relatively low circulation in Israel, Haaretz has for many years been described as Israel's most influential daily newspaper. In 2006, it exposed a scandal regarding professional and ethical standards at Israeli hospitals. Its readership includes members of Israel's intelligentsia and members of its political and economic elites. In 1999, surveys showed that Haaretz readership had above-average education, income, and wealth, and that most were Ashkenazi Jews . Some have said that Haaretz functions in Israel much as The New York Times does in

5460-636: The occupation, the discriminatory treatment of Arab citizens, and the mindset that led to the Second Lebanon War . A 2003 study in The International Journal of Press/Politics concluded that Haaretz ' s reporting of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict was more favorable to Israelis than to Palestinians but less so than that of The New York Times . In 2016, Jeffrey Goldberg , the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic , wrote: "I like

5551-418: The ongoing management crisis prevented the company from engaging in new innovation or entering new business areas. Despite the 2006-2007 economic climate being one of growth, layoffs occurred in mid-2007. Research analysts began speculating that the company might break up. Because of the accounting issues from the option backdating, Comverse Technology was unable to file full or timely financial reports with

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5642-409: The other two executives, William Sorin pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was sentenced to a year in prison in 2007. David Kreinberg cooperated with prosecutors, repaid $ 2.4 million to the SEC, and in 2011 was sentenced to the "time served" of the minimal period he had originally been in custody. While over a hundred companies were investigated or charged with options backdating, Comverse was one of

5733-515: The paper attracted leading Hebrew writers of the time. The newspaper was initially published in Jerusalem . From 1919 to 1922, the paper was headed by a succession of editors, among them Leib Yaffe . It was closed briefly due to a budgetary shortfall and reopened in Tel Aviv at the beginning of 1923 under the editorship of Moshe Glickson, who held the post for 15 years. The Tel Aviv municipality granted

5824-601: The paper financial support by paying in advance for future advertisements. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Haaretz ' s liberal viewpoint was to some degree associated with the General Zionist "A" faction, which later helped form the Progressive Party , though it was nonpartisan and careful not to espouse any specific party line. It was considered the most sophisticated of the Yishuv 's dailies. Salman Schocken ,

5915-419: The partial spinoffs and economic difficulties, revenues were down to $ 735 million. In December 2001, Fox News reported that wiretapping equipment provided by Comverse Infosys to the U.S. government for electronic eavesdropping may have been vulnerable, as these systems allegedly had a back door through which the wiretaps could be intercepted by unauthorized parties. Fox News reporter Carl Cameron said there

6006-550: The planned spin-off of [Comverse Network Systems], will result in a tax efficient distribution to our shareholders and direct ownership in two independent, well-capitalized publicly-traded companies." Philippe Tartavull was named as the CEO of the newly independent Comverse. Results for fiscal year 2012 for the restructured Comverse, Inc. demonstrated a return to profitability, with a net income of $ 5.1 million. These restructuring transactions were completed on 4 February 2013 and represented

6097-471: The process. Deutsche Telekom became one of the company's biggest early customers. By 1991, the company had annual sales of $ 17 million and was selling a combined voice and fax mailbox system. Many of its early successes came from avoiding the huge telecommunications companies in the U.S. and instead focusing on selling to small- and medium-sized companies in the wireless market in Europe. The company also sought

6188-547: The research and development work. The early years of the company were difficult; in 1984, they founded Comverse in the United States, which became the parent company of Efrat. The name "Comverse" was chosen as a fusion of the words "communication" and "versatility". In 1986 Comverse went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market with a $ 20 million valuation; the company used the money so gained as its final round of funding. The three founders had trouble working with each other, and Yemini divorced Alexander's sister; in 1987, Alexander

6279-641: The research and development workers, many of whom occupied the company's seven buildings on HaBarzel in the Ramat HaHayal district of Tel Aviv , while business and marketing operations were stationed in the company's Woodbury, New York headquarters. In 2006, Comverse Technology was involved in an options backdating scandal. In May of that year, company founder and CEO Jacob Alexander stepped down from his position. Alexander, finance chief David Kreinberg, and former senior general counsel William Sorin (both of whom had also stepped down) were charged in July 2006 in

6370-545: The rest in the US and France. The continuing financial reporting problems had cost the company some $ 500 million in accountants' fees and related costs since 2006 and was the largest drain on its cash position. The fact that senior management awarded itself bonuses in a time of various rounds of layoffs left employees feeling outraged. Comverse's restructuring also affected its 2006-acquired NetCentrex business unit in France, with layoffs or

6461-458: The same mark when it joined the NASDAQ-100 index. The early 2000s recession led to some struggles for Comverse Technology, with the global economic downturn leading to publicly announced profit warnings and a plunge in the stock price in July 2001. Over 3,000 jobs were cut during the period as part of several restructuring efforts. The company still made some acquisitions, such as buying

6552-500: The sharing of customer interaction analysis among the contact center, back office, branch, web sites, and mobile apps. In June 2024, Verint was named “Best Virtual Agent Solution” in the AI Breakthrough Awards program. The company’s open platform was named a winner in the “Best Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” category at the 2024 CX Awards hosted by CX Today . Comverse Technology Comverse Technology, Inc.

6643-476: The sole owners of the Haaretz Group until August 2006, when they sold a 25% stake to German publisher M. DuMont Schauberg . The deal was negotiated with the help of the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor . This deal was seen as controversial in Israel as DuMont Schauberg's father, Kurt Neven DuMont , was member of the Nazi Party and his publishing house promoted Nazi ideology. On 12 June 2011, it

6734-450: The third-largest circulation in Israel. It is widely read by international observers, especially in its English edition, and discussed in the international press. According to the Center for Research Libraries , among Israel's daily newspapers, " Haaretz is considered the most influential and respected for both its news coverage and its commentary." Haaretz was first published in 1918 as

6825-438: The time of their belonging to Comverse Technology were: The company's origins date to 1982 (or 1983, sources differ), when three Israelis, aspiring investment banker Jacob "Kobi" Alexander of Shearson Loeb Rhoades , engineer Boaz Misholi , and Alexander brother-in-law and Columbia University computer science professor Yechiam Yemini, got together and founded an Israeli start-up company, Efrat Future Technologies Ltd. In

6916-533: The use of fake names of option holders, and the creation of secret funds in which to hold the illicit gains. The SEC also filed civil charges against the three, for filing false annual and quarterly financial reports and proxy statements from 1991 to 2005. By then, Alexander had fled the country and was classified a wanted fugitive in August 2006 by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation . On 27 September 2006, he

7007-475: The worldwide mobile voicemail management market and sold a popular short message service center (SMSC) product. While headquartered in the US, most of the company's research and development was done in Israel; Comverse became one of the more visible success stories in Israel's hi-tech industry . It was one of Israel's largest employers of software engineers , was closely followed in the nation's business press, and

7098-544: Was a technology company located in Woodbury, New York in the United States , that developed and marketed telecommunications software. The company focused on providing value-added services to telecommunication service providers, in particular to mobile network operators. Comverse Technology had several wholly or partly owned subsidiaries. The name "Comverse" is a fusion of the words "communication" and "versatility". The company

7189-702: Was able to raise money several times on Nasdaq, including once for its Ulticom subsidiary and once (at a valuation of $ 600 million) shortly before the Dot-com bubble burst. Comverse was one of the most prominent success stories in Israel's hi-tech industry , with both Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post referring to it as a flagship of that industry. As CEO, Alexander was sought out for meetings in Tel Aviv by world leaders such as Chinese President Jiang Zemin . He became known, as Bloomberg News later stated, as "the wizard of Israel's technology boom"; his oft-stated goal

7280-399: Was an $ 80 million investment by well-known entrepreneur George Soros . However, the financial reports were not published and a public announcement was made in August 2010 that the company was short on cash and planning more layoffs. A precipitous drop of the stock price caused the market valuation of the company to fall below $ 1 billion, and the continued failure to file financial reports put

7371-521: Was announced that Russian-Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin had purchased a 20% stake in the Haaretz Group, buying 15% from the family and 5% from M. DuMont Schauberg. In December 2019, members of the Schocken family bought all of the Haaretz stock belonging to M. DuMont Schauberg. The deal saw the Schocken family reach 75% ownership, with the remaining 25% owned by Leonid Nevzlin. In October 2012,

7462-623: Was arrested in Namibia after hiding in Windhoek with his family, where he had bought a house at a country club. If extradited to the US and convicted, he faced 25 years in prison. He was released on bail and engaged in a long battle to avoid extradition to the US (in Namibia neither money laundering nor options backdating is a crime). Upon leaving the US he had transferred some $ 64 million to Israel, with most of that ending up in Namibia; another $ 50 million

7553-552: Was blocked by the US government, which overall sought the forfeiture of $ 138 million of Alexander's assets. In April 2010, Alexander won a victory in the Supreme Court of Namibia that allowed him to continue to live and work there until the extradition request was ruled upon. In November 2010, Alexander agreed to pay the U.S. government $ 53.6 million to settle the SEC's case against him, with those monies being targeted to settle assorted lawsuits against Comverse by shareholders. Of

7644-416: Was for Comverse to do for Israel what Nokia had done for Finland . Comverse was one of the largest employers of software engineers in Israel and its stock was widely held among the Israeli investing public; as a consequence, the successes and failures of Comverse were always followed closely in the country's financial press. ( Amdocs and Mercury Interactive were two other prominent Israeli companies in

7735-441: Was founded in 1982, and went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1986. Led by co-founder and CEO Jacob "Kobi" Alexander , the company originally specialized in centralized hardware/software systems for voice and fax messaging and sold them to telecommunications companies and other large enterprises. Much of its funding came from Israeli government subsidies and tax credits provided to research and development for hi-tech firms. By

7826-556: Was left with sole control of the company after the other two pulled out. The company was a penny stock on the edge of collapse. Under his lead, Alexander was credited with turning around Comverse's fortunes. In 1989, the Ascom Group made a $ 6 million direct investment in the company. In 1990, Comverse won a potentially $ 10 million contract, its largest yet, to deliver computers running voicemail and fax applications on West German cellular networks, beating out far larger corporations in

7917-476: Was no reason to believe the Israeli government was implicated, but that "a classified top-secret investigation is underway". A March 2002 story by Le Monde recapped the Fox report and concluded: "Comverse is suspected of having introduced into its systems of the 'catch gates' in order to 'intercept, record and store' these wire-taps. This hardware would render the 'listener' himself 'listened to'." Fox News did not pursue

8008-630: Was restructuring into four independent business units and focusing much of its emphasis on billing systems for mobile carriers. Layoffs also resumed, with more possibly in the offing. In March 2011, revenues for fiscal 2009 were announced at $ 1.58 billion, down from $ 1.72 billion two years previously, with an overall loss of $ 273.3 million. Dahan stepped down as CEO. During his tenure, Comverse Technology stock fell 68 percent in price and 2,000–2,500 employees were laid off; he made more than $ 20 million during that time and gained payments of some $ 5 million upon his departure. Overall, his stint as leader of

8099-689: Was succeeded as editor-in-chief by Hanoch Marmari. In 2004 David Landau replaced Marmari and was succeeded by Dov Alfon in 2008. The current editor-in-chief of the newspaper is Aluf Benn , who replaced Alfon in August 2011. Charlotte Halle became editor of the English print edition in February 2008. Walter Gross was a member of the governing editorial board and a columnist with the paper from 1951 to 1995. Haaretz describes itself as having "a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and on international affairs", and has been summarized as being "liberal on security, civil rights and economy, supportive of

8190-452: Was the first Israeli-associated company to join the S&P 500 index. In 2006, Comverse was involved in an options backdating scandal. Alexander and two other top executives were charged in the US with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and making false filings. Alexander fled the country to Namibia where he fought extensively against extradition. The scandal proved difficult for Comverse Technology to recover from;

8281-407: Was well-positioned for ongoing operations or a possible sale. Zacks Investment Research predicted the company would again show a profit for fiscal year 2011. Comverse itself had gained tens of millions in new business, was hiring again in modest numbers, and was at about 4,000 employees, including some on an outsourcing basis. In June 2011, results for fiscal 2010 were announced, finally bringing

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