Ilan Ben Dov
| Ilan Ben-Dov | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 16, 1957 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Residence | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Nationality | Israel |
| Other names | Hebrew: אילן בן דב |
| Occupation | businessman |
| Spouse(s) |
1983 ~ 2002 Shirly Ben Dov 2008 ~ present Keren Michaeli |
| Children | 3 from first marriage; 2 from second |
1983 ~ 2002 Shirly Ben Dov
Ilan Ben-Dov (Hebrew: אילן בן דב) (born 16 January 1957 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli businessman and investor.
Ilan Ben-Dov started in business at the age of 17, working as a games operator at a swimming pool. He began importing SEGA electronic games 13 years later, before founding Suny Electronics Ltd in 1991. In 1993, during a bubble, Suny raised NIS 20 million in an IPO. In 1998, Ben-Dov obtained the Israel franchise to import Samsung Electronics cellular telephones, and acquired control of the Achla web portal from Avi and Hagit Maor in September 1999. Acquisitions continued to grow the empire, and in January 2001 Ben-Dov acquired the Tapuz web portal for $450,000 through Achla. In March 2000 Pelephone and Ben-Dov launched GoNext, the first wireless Internet company in Israel.
On 29 October 2002, Ben-Dov sold all of his shares in GoNext to Pelephone for NIS 42 million. On 27 December 2004, he sold 3% of IDB Holding Corp. to Nochi Dankner.
On 4 April 2005, he bought more 6.3% of Giron shareholding. In 2005, Ben-Dov expanded his financing activity and founded Tao Tsuot Ltd., which made a number of leveraged investments in public companies. However, these investments were made at the height of the bull market. Tao took a severe battering during the market crash in 2008, posting heavy losses as share prices crashed, and it fell into a shareholders' equity deficit.
In 2008 Ben-Dov restructured Suny's holdings and sold the Samsung cellular telephone import business to Suny subsidiary Scailex Corp. ltd. Except for importing Samsung cellular telephones, Suny was active in the Internet service field through its controlling interest in Internet portal Tapuz People Ltd and BlogTV. In August 2009 Ben Dov acquired control of Partner Communications from Hutchison Telecommunications International for NIS 4.7 billion (about $1.38 billion), in one of the biggest transactions the Israeli market had seen. This was financed through loans provided by the financial institutions that bought his bonds, the banks, and Hutchison's seller's loan. On 10 January 2010, Ben-Dov sold 4.92% of Azorim Investment, Development and Construction Ltd. for NIS 36.8 million. In October 2010 Ben-Dov bought 012 Smile for NIS 1.5 billion. In December 2012 Ben dov sold 30.7 percent of Partner Communications along with control of the company to Haim Saban. On 6 May 2013 Ben Dov put Tapuz up for sale.
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