Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm, has invested in US-based enterprise software company Medallia as part of its efforts to pivot towards the industries of the future.
The minority investment in the customer experience management specialist took place in collaboration with Thoma Bravo, which recently took Medallia private, Mubadala said on Wednesday. It did not disclose the value of investment.
Thoma Bravo took San Francisco-based Medallia private in October in an all-cash transaction valued at $6.4 billion.
Medallia captures experience data from customers and employees across several channels. The data is then analysed using the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to come up with predictive insights to drive business actions and outcomes.
Mubadala intends to diversify its asset base as it continues to increase its investment in technology and health care.
In 2020 alone, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Abu Dhabi company invested $29.4bn, including in technology and life sciences, sectors vital to the future of the UAE and Mubadala.
It invested $250 million in US biosimulation software company Certara in July as part of its international healthcare and investment portfolio.
In March, the fund agreed to plough £800m into Britain's life sciences industry over the next five years as part of a £1bn deal between the UK and the UAE.
Mubadala is at the heart of the government’s plans to diversify Abu Dhabi's revenue base and generate income from sources other than oil.
The sovereign fund’s $243.4bn investment portfolio spans five continents. It has interests in aerospace, information and communications technology, semiconductors, metals and mining, renewable energy, oil and gas, and petrochemicals.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
