Business & Trade

The highly successful social shopping company, Groupon, has entered the Israeli market by acquiring an Israeli start-up called Grouper. Groupon is set to pay the company approximately $8 million over the course of 3 years.

Grouper is the first social buying site in Israel.This recent purchase is part of Groupon's larger international expansion into Israel, India, and South Africa. 

Groupon launched in 2008 in Chicago and offers daily deals for consumers based on the principle of collective buying.

For more information, please visit Grouper and Groupon websites.

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Better Place Founder & CEO, Shai Agassi, recently outlined his vision for a future free of oil dependence in The Economist. Agassi argues that China and Israel are leading the way in attaining this goal by electrifying their transport systems. Countries and states, he believes, can benefit greatly by following in their footsteps: "Moving the transport sector to reliance on electrons—with an open menu of electricity sources and a massive distributed storage of car batteries to improve the grid and allow higher reliance on renewable sources—can build industries, create jobs and improve economic, environmental and national security all at once."

Better Place is a venture-backed startup based in Palo Alto. The company is set to launch the first nationwide vehicle-charging and battery-switching network in Israel in 2011. For more information on Better Place, please click here.

One of the world's top fashion brands, Burberry, has opened the doors to its new flagship store in Israel. The three-story store will sell men's, women's, and children's clothing and accessories. According to a Ynet report, Burberry has chosen Ofra Yaakobi and Yoram Hishin as franchisees, following their success in running the Gucci franchise in Israel.

Burberry is a British luxury brand, which manufactures clothing, fragrances, and accessories.

US officials are worried Iran could use new technology in coming months that would shorten the time needed to reach nuclear weapon status and reduce the scope for diplomacy, the Financial Times reported.

Read more: US Fears Faster Iran Nuclear Progress