IDF treats Haitian girl

The Israel Defense Forces’s ongoing efforts to embrace the Internet continues. A few days before IDF representatives explained to 140Conf participants how the army used social media to update the public about its efforts in Haiti and to help save lives there, the army announced that it created and is using a website modeled after eBay for the purpose of selling and buying surplus equipment.

The new site, called The Arena, is the army’s new effort to keep better track of inventory while potentially saving itself millions of shekels on “duplicate and wasteful equipment”. It is also partially a response to the poor capabilities it had in moving around equipment and materials that soldiers needed during the Lebanon War in 2006.

According to Bloomberg, Brigadier-General Maran Prozenfer, financial adviser to the chief of staff, explained,

“Every unit in the Israel Defense Forces will be able to put up for sale any equipment that it doesn’t need, so that other units can see and bid on it.”

Prozenfer expects the new site to significantly reduce equipment costs, which according to him currently accounts for nearly 40 percent of the army’s NIS 50 billion shekel ($12.9 billion) annual budget.

::Haaretz

Image via IDF Spokesperson Blog.

News
Reuters and TechCrunch have both reported that eBay through PayPal has purchased the Israeli fraud solutions company, Fraud Sciences for $169 million. The acquisition has received mixed reactions in the blogosphere, with some questioning how smart it was for eBay to pay such an “inflated” price for the company, and others unsurprised as fraud has hurt the use of eBay by honest customers in foreign countries, and is a much needed improvement for the struggling company.

About
According to TechCrunch’s description, Fraud Sciences

    “offers automated anti-fraud systems including SpotLight VFX and SpotLight T2T, merchant
    solutions the provide transaction verification with fraud prevention.”

Israeli R&D companies database, Matimop.org.il, adds that the promise of the company’s science

    “is to emphatically prove a customer is who they represent themselves to be with minimal
     or zero verification friction. Thus, enabling “online merchants to accept more business from
    more markets and increase the lifetime value of customers.”

TechCrunch also details how the acquisition “will assist them [eBay] in significantly improving trust and safety across its sites in 2008,” by integrating Fraud Sciences’ “risk tools with PayPal’s fraud management system.” Additionally, the Fraud Science’s management team won’t have to worry about seeking new employment as they will join PayPal’s technology and fraud management teams.

Company Facts

Founded in 2001

Shvat Shaked and Saar Wilf, founders

Gadi Maier, CEO

Yossi Barak, COO

Website: www.fraudsciences.com