Spyware maker NSO Group confirms acquisition by US investor

Israeli spyware maker NSO Group has confirmed to TechCrunch that a US investment group has acquired the company.

“An American investment group has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company and taken control,” NSO spokesperson Oded Hershowitz told TechCrunch on Friday.

Confirmation of the deal comes shortly after Israeli tech news website Calcalist reported on Friday that a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simmons had agreed to buy the surveillance technology maker in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

Hershowitz declined to disclose the amount invested or the investors.

“This investment does not mean that the company will break away from Israeli regulation or operational control,” Hershowitz said. “Our headquarters and core operations remain in Israel. We continue to be fully supervised and regulated by the relevant authorities in Israel, including the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli regulatory framework.”

(After sending the message, Hershowitz declared his comments “off the record,” which requires both parties to agree to the terms beforehand. Since no agreement was made, TechCrunch is publishing the response.)

In 2023, the Guardian reported that Mr Simmons and his associates were considering a bid for control of NSO through an investment company. That deal never materialized.

Calcalist reported that as part of the new deal with Simonds, NSO co-founder and executive chairman Omri Lavie’s involvement with the spyware maker will end.

Lavie did not immediately comment when contacted by TechCrunch. Neither Simmons nor his Hollywood company STX Entertainment responded to our requests for comment.

From US ban to US ownership

NSO Group has been embroiled in controversy since its inception.

Over the years, researchers from digital rights groups such as Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Amnesty International have documented dozens of incidents in which NSO’s government clients targeted and hacked journalists, dissidents, and human rights defenders in countries such as Hungary, India, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

NSO has long maintained that its spyware is not designed to target U.S. phone numbers to avoid hurting its chances of entering the U.S. market. However, in 2021, the company was caught targeting about 12 U.S. government officials overseas.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Department of Commerce prohibited U.S. companies from doing business with NSO by placing the spyware maker on the U.S. Entity List. Since then, NSO has sought, with the help of lobbying firms linked to the Trump administration, to be removed from the U.S. government’s blocklist, most recently by May 2025.

John Scott Railton, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab who has worked with NSO on spyware abuse research for a decade, told TechCrunch he is concerned about the acquisition.

“NSO is a company with a long history of supporting the hacking of American government officials against American interests. In what world would someone like that be trusted to properly oversee a company like NSO Group?” Scott-Railton said, referring to Simmons.

“Moreover, my real concern is that NSO is aggressively entering the United States and trying to sell its products to American police departments in American cities. This dictator’s technology does not belong anywhere near Americans, nor is it protected by the Constitution.”[ed] rights or freedoms. ”

Ownership of NSO has been exchanged before.

NSO Group, originally founded by Niv Karmi, Shareef Furio and Omri Ravi, was acquired by US private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014. Ravi and Julio regained control of the company in 2019 with the help of European private equity firm Novalpina. California-based Berkeley Research Group then took over management of the fund in 2021. In 2023, Lavie regained control of NSO as majority owner.