Israel's 20 shekel bill. Photo: WikiCommons.

Financial Algorithms, an Israeli information technology company that creates trading algorithms for hedge funds, is the target of a $4 billion takeover bid from an unidentified foreign buyer, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, based on an unsourced report in Israel’s Calcalist business newspaper.

Financial Algorithms, founded in 2001, employs about 100 workers in Herzliya and posted a profit of $330 million in 2013, Calcalist reported, saying that the company was considering the approach by the foreign group.

Calcalist named two giant U.S. hedge funds, Chicago-based Citadel LLC and New York-based Renaissance Technologies LLC, as potential suitors.

Bloomberg was unable to get a comment from any of the three companies, but noted that, at $4 billion, the acquisition “would be one of the largest of an Israeli company on record.”

Other big ticket deals in Israel include the Lucent Technologies acquisition of Chromatis Networks  in 2000 for more than $4 billion, Cisco’s purchase of NDS Group Ltd. in 2012 for $5 billion, and when Berkshire Hathaway paid $4 billion in 2006 for 80 per cent of Iscar Metalworking. That cash purchase was so large that the Israeli government was worried if it might destabilize the shekel.