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Mountain View, California and Tel Aviv, Israel-based Go Networks Inc. has raised $20 million in a first round of financing, reports The Deal.com. The round was at a post money value of $40 million. Participating in the round were Benhamou Global Ventures LLC of Palo Alto. , Pitango Venture Capital of Herzliya, Israel, Israel Seed Partners of Jerusalem, Accel Partners of Palo Alto and Apax Partners. The financing is one of the largest first rounds for an Israeli start up in recent years. Founded in 2003 Go Networks develops strong antennas for improving network performance. Last year the company raised $2 million in seed financing from Bloomberg Capital and Pitango. The funds are to be used for product development…

The Semiconductor Industry Association in San Jose reports that the worldwide sales of semiconductors jumped approximately 28% last year. The industry group said sales rose to a record $213 billion last year from the $166.4 billion recorded during 2003. The SIA also reported chip sales declined in December 3.5% to $18.4 billion from the $19.0 billion reported for November. December sales were 14.6% higher than in December of 2003. Fourth-quarter sales, at $55.1 billion, declined by 0.8% from the prior quarter sales of $55.5 billion, it said, adding that, for the first time since 2000, global chip sales surpassed $200 billion. Worldwide sales of semiconductors fell to $139 billion in 2001 following the collapse of the dot-com boom, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and a mild economic downturn. The SIA noted the strongest growth in sales of personal computers and wireless handsets were among the major drivers of record chip sales in 2004; and…

Cisco Systems has said it will open a Tokyo-based R&D center this month. The announcement follows an earlier one by the San Jose-based company announcing the planned opening of a research center in Shanghai, China, in the third quarter of 2005 and the launching of a venture capital (VC) program in India to evaluate investment opportunities in new start-up companies. Cisco will invest $12 million over the next five years in the Japanese facility, which will focus on new Internet protocol (IP) technologies. The company will initially employ about 10 engineers in Tokyo, who will work on enhancements and extensions to its IOS software, which was developed for its latest high-end telecom router. The engineers will also work on other IP router features and products, along with IP version 6 and wireless technologies. Cisco chose Japan for this research center due to its "technical leadership in broadband services," according to a press release. The company said it will spend $32 million over the next five years on the planned Shanghai research center. Researchers at this facility will focus on developing voice over IP (VoIP) technologies for telecom carriers. Cisco's expects to hire about 100 people to work there over the next 18 months. The company's Indian VC plans add to its R&D facilities in Bangalore where it has been since 1998 and currently employs more than 500 engineers. The Bangalore research center is focused on the development of routing and optical technologies and updates to its IOS software.

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