By the article the dev center will be located in Matan which is an incredible place located in Haifa. It's location closed to the Technion brings the best brains to work for the dev centers of most of the international enterprises located there. (The Technion institute brought 3 Nobel prize winners in the last 7 years with a yearly budget of about only 200M$)
So it's like the silicon valley except the size. The size of the Matam area is less than 2000ft^2 and in this small area there are dev centers of Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Elbit,NDS, Philips, GE, Zoran and many more. Now, get back 2 lines before to read about the size of the area where all these are located in. And if this isn't incredible then I don't know what is!
Imho this is somewhat a dead place. There might be a big chunk of semiconductor companies over there (what is the reason that Apple opens up there I guess) but brains wise it's a bad place. It's virtually impossible to hire good developers over there because everybody is located in the center from the beginning or moved to the center because there is no companies in the Haifa to work for (Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Elbit,NDS, Philips, GE, Zoran doesn't really count as work places for most of the people)
By the name I assume you're an Israeli and while it's true that Matam has an high ratio of global corporations per sqm, I think that when people (both in Israel and outside it) think of "the Israeli silicon valley" they think more of Tel Aviv and its surrounding area (i.e. Herzliya). If Apple will purchase Anobit then they will have a beachhead in Herzliya... although two offices, both in Matam and Tel Aviv/Herzliya is pretty common (i.e. Google, IBM, etc.)
Yep, and Haifa is a beautiful little town on the Mediterranean with the famous Baha'i Gardens and Mount Carmel. I used to go by this area with my then-girlfriend, now-wife on my way to the beach.
So it's like the silicon valley except the size. The size of the Matam area is less than 2000ft^2 and in this small area there are dev centers of Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Elbit,NDS, Philips, GE, Zoran and many more. Now, get back 2 lines before to read about the size of the area where all these are located in. And if this isn't incredible then I don't know what is!