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Babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program, developed by Babylon Software Ltd., an Israeli public company () based in Or Yehuda. The company was established in 1997 by the Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia. Its IPO took place ten years later. It is considered a part of Israel's Download Valley,〔(Game over in Download Valley? ) Haaretz, Inbal Orpaz, Orr Hirschauge, 22 August 2013〕〔(Conduit Diversifies Away From 'Download Valley' ) Wall Street Journal, Orr Hirschauge, updated 15 May 2014〕 a cluster of software companies monetizing "free" software downloads through adware. Babylon includes in-house proprietary dictionaries, as well as community-created dictionaries and glossaries. It is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. The program also uses a text-to-speech agent, so users hear the proper pronunciation of words and text. Babylon has developed 36 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages. In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of 50 million NIS through its collaboration with Google. Babylon attempts to hijack the user's system by adding the ''Babylon Toolbar'', which has been widely identified as a browser hijacker. The toolbar also comes bundled as an add-on with other software downloads.〔Lee, Jay (25 July 2012) (Getting rid of Babylon ), The Houston Chronicle〕 It changes browser preferences such as the user's home page and search engine, changes that can be very difficult to reverse.〔(Remove FBI & Babylon Zombie Virus ) PCPitstop.com, author Steve Hogan, 11 October 2012〕〔Brinkmann, Martin (17 August 2011) (How To Uninstall The Babylon Toolbar Completely ), ghacks.net.〕 ==History== In 1995, Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia began a project for an online English–Hebrew dictionary which would not interrupt the reading process. As a result, Babylon Ltd. was founded in 1997 and launched the first version of Babylon. On 25 September 1997, the company filed a patent for text recognition and translation. In 1998, a year following its launch date, Babylon had two million users, mostly in Germany and Brazil, growing from 420,000 to 2.5 million users in the course of that year. In the same year, Formula Systems, headed by Dan Goldstein, acquired Mashov Computers and became the largest shareholder in the company. By 2000, the product had over 4 million users. In the spring of 2000, Babylon Ltd. failed to raise $20 million in a private placement and lost NIS 15 million. Further stress came with the collapse of the Dot-com bubble. In 2001, Babylon Ltd. continued shedding money, with the company costing its parent company Formula Vision NIS 4.7 million.〔(Formula Vision lost NIS 33.6 million in 2001 ). TheMarker.com (3 April 2002)〕 Since 2007, Babylon Ltd. () has been a publicly traded company. Its IPO took place in February 2007; Israeli businessman Noam Lanir purchased controlling interests in the company for $10.5 million, sharing management with second majority shareholder Reed Elsevier〔Malichi, Asaf (12 August 2007) (Noam Lanir buys into Babylon ), YNet〕 and the Company founder Amnon Ovadia. According to Globes magazine in January 2011, Lanir received an offer for his stake from a foreign private equity fund that valued the company at NIS 248 million (approximately 70 million dollars). In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of NIS 50 million through its collaboration with Google. In 2010, Google Ireland signed an extended cooperation agreement with Babylon to provide it with online search and pay-per-click advertising services.〔(Babylon extends deal with Google ), Globes, 26 December 2010〕 In 2011, Babylon was named the seventh most popular website in Libya, the eighth in Algeria and the eleventh in Tunisia.〔Solomon, Shoshanna (11 December 2011) (Israel’s Babylon Says Arab World to Boost Sales of Translation Software ). bloomberg.com〕 According to Globes magazine, Noam Lanir, who acquired control of Babylon for NIS 20 million, made a paper profit of NIS 200 million on his investment in 2012.〔Tsipori, Tali (19 April 2012) (Noam Lanir makes NIS 200m profit on Babylon ). globes.co.il〕 According to Alexa, Babylon's website was once ranked 45th most popular website in the world.〔 It is now ranked 494th. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Babylon (software)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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