The Matam High-Tech Park at the southern entrance to Haifa. Photo: Zvi Roger / Wikimedia Commons.

Acquisitions of Israeli high-tech companies totaled $11.1 billion in 2018, up from $6.3 billion in 2017, boosted by four deals valued at more than $1 billion, a report released on Tuesday showed.

The number of transactions however dropped 20 percent to 89 last year, according to the report by the Israel Venture Capital Research Center and the Meitar law firm. The 2017 data exclude the $15 billion acquisition of Mobileye by Intel Corp.

Only eight Israeli companies chose to go public in 2018 — five life science companies in the United States and three companies in Australia. This number is down from 12 in 2017.

Last year saw a decrease in the number of exits — M&A and IPOs — of private companies between $250 million and $1 billion.

The combination of a significant increase in the volume of investments in later-stage growth companies and a relative stagnation in exits, “highlights the fact that Israel is building a strong and significant infrastructure of companies,” Meitar partner Shira Azran said.