Palestinian contractors poised for riches from Israeli tech firm's takeover

Reuters - Palestinian engineers working for Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies <MLNX.O> are poised to share a $3.5 million payout when the company's takeover by U.S. chip supplier Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> is completed. Mellanox is one of a handful of Israeli firms that have begun to collaborate with the emerging Palestinian tech scene, bypassing the political conflict to tap a growing pool of engineers at costs they say are comparable to hiring from engineering expertise in India or Ukraine. The chip maker offered stock options to more than 100 Palestinian engineers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip when it hired them as contractors, even though they are not permanent staff, as a shortage of engineers in Israel makes their skills highly sought after by multinationals. Mellanox says its Palestinian designers and coders, outsourced through software firm ASAL Technologies, will now be able to exercise those options after Nvidia's $6.8 billion takeover closes at the end of 2019, and stand to collectively earn as much as $3.5 million.