Silicom inks China deal

In what's becoming more and more common, a small Israeli company Silicom Ltd. (NASDAQ: SILC) announced that it has received a $1.8 million order from one of China's largest domestic server companies, representing its first significant penetration into the vast Chinese market. The order is for production quantities of Silicom's advanced fiber multi-port Gigabit Ethernet adapters scheduled for delivery during the first quarter.

"We are excited to achieve this significant initial penetration of the strategic Chinese market," commented Shaike Orbach, Silicom's President and CEO. "China's rapid growth represents a huge new opportunity for Silicom, especially the fact that its server usage is growing in step with the phenomenal development of its telecom, transportation, banking and other sectors. In fact, according to CCID Consulting, more than half a million x86 servers were sold in China in 2007, with additional strong growth projected for 2008."

Silicom stock is up strongly on the news. Silicom is the latest Israeli company to break into the Chinese market, and I would expect the trend to continue. With Israeli Venture Capital firms doing joint ventures with Chinese investment firms, we should see more and more hi-tech deals being signed between the two countries.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has a position and owns stock in SILC and is long the stock.He has no positions in any other stock mentioned as of 2/4/08.