Efi has sold his third venture in California and is probably moving to New York. The Israeli paper Globes is trying to assess what’s now.

Efi Arazi – EFI

The Guru

by Efi Landau

Efi Arazi needs no introduction, either in Israel or overseas. Probably no ambassador is better known to Israeli high tech. He grew up in besieged Jerusalem during Israel’s War of Independence. After demobilization from the IDF, he lived in the US. At age 30, he already held a senior position in a high tech company. He was called to Israel in 1968 to found and manage Scitex, which developed preprinting computer systems.

 

In over 20 years at Scitex, Arazi brought the company to record peaks, but also experienced the fall of 1985-87. The company recovered, and Robert Maxwell entered as an investor, but Arazi was forced to resign.

 

Arazi left Scitex in 1988, and a year later in Silicon Valley founded Electronics For Imaging (EFII), which deals with color printing systems, with an investment of $14,000. Some years later, he cashed in his investment at a profit of $55 million. The company is currently valued at $3 billion, has yearly sales of $500 million, and its 1999 profit is expected to near $100 million.

 

Arazi’s third project was less successful, although he made a not insignificant profit from it. Imedia was founded in 1994, after its founders developed a product in the field of digital video compression. A few months after the company’s founding, Efi Arazi joined the enterprise and began managing it. A rosy future was forecast for the company, with a future value in the hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. In the end, the company was sold this July to US company Terayon Communication Systems, which is controlled by the Rakib brothers, for $100 million in Terayon shares.

 

Arazi is currently sitting on an unknown number of shares in Terayon, which acquired Israeli companies Telgate and Radwiz a month ago, testing ideas. At age 63, his fame as a high tech entrepreneur precedes him wherever he goes. It is said that Arazi replaces his wives at the same rate that he replaces his companies. He is now living with his fourth wife, but still has not picked a fourth company, so there is something to look forward to.

 

Published by Israel’s Business Arena on December 13, 1999