Chromatis was a very successful Israeli
hi-tech company. The story of Chromatis most vividly illustrates the years' 2000/2001 falling of the hi-tech industry, mostly in the communication market.
Chromatis was founded by two israeli businessmen in 1997. Its research dealt with high speed fiber-optics equipment, to improve communication in metropolitan areas.
In June, 2000 Chromatis was sold to Lucent Technologies of Bell Labs for the astonishing price of about 4.5 billion dollars and it was the biggest acquisition deal in israeli hi-tech history and was considered the most successful israeli startup company.
On August 27, 2001, only one year later, Lucent Technologies closed the firm and fired all the workers.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story is the fact that Chromatis got its 4.5 billion dollars not in cash but in Lucent's stocks. Meantime, the stocks fell down 90%-95% of the price, so people who didn't sell their stocks in time were left with only a small fraction of the money they could have earned.