Wiz founder Assaf Rappaport leads high-tech bid for Israeli TV station
EXCLUSIVE: The tech group plans a $100 million investment to transform Reshet 13 into an independent, apolitical news channel.
The race to acquire Reshet 13 is intensifying. Calcalist has learned that a group of high-tech entrepreneurs, led by Assaf Rappaport, CEO and co-founder of Wiz, is in advanced talks with Len Blavatnik to acquire control of the channel. Blavatnik is reportedly open to selling majority control while remaining a minority shareholder, after he transferred 74% of Reshet to CEO Emiliano Calemzuk a year and a half ago, following Calemzuk’s commitment to bring in new investors.
So far, billionaire Patrick Drahi, owner of i24 and HOT, and a group of American evangelical investors organized by Calemzuk have also been named as potential buyers.
Sources close to the high-tech group say the entrepreneurs, who have recorded significant exits and listed companies on the Nasdaq, see an opportunity to build a pan-Israeli, independent, and apolitical news channel, free from vested interests and conflicts of interest. The group intends to invest approximately $100 million in the channel over the next three years.
In December 2024, negotiations between Palo Alto Networks founder Nir Zuk and the owners of Reshet 13 reached a due diligence process, but a deal was ultimately not finalized.
