Spyware maker NSO Group confirms its acquisition by US investors

Israeli spyware maker NSO Group She 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 has gained controlling ownership,” NSO spokesman Oded Hershowitz told TechCrunch on Friday.

Confirmation of the deal came shortly after from the Israeli technology news website Calcalist reported Friday that a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Symonds agreed to buy the surveillance technology maker in a deal valued at tens of millions of dollars.

Hershowitz declined to specify the amount invested, as well as the identity of the investors.

“This investment does not mean that the company is falling out of Israeli regulatory or operational control,” Hershowitz said. “The company’s headquarters and core operations remain in Israel. It continues to be fully supervised and regulated by the relevant Israeli authorities, including the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli regulatory framework.”

(After sending the messages, Hershowitz declared his comments “off the record,” which requires both parties to agree to the terms in advance. TechCrunch is publishing the responses because no agreement was reached.)

In 2023, The Guardian reported that Simmonds and his partner, through their investment firm, were exploring a bid for control of NSO. The deal never materialized.

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

Lavi did not immediately comment when contacted by TechCrunch. Neither Simmonds nor his Hollywood company STX Entertainment responded to our request for comment either.

From US embargo to US ownership

The NSO Group has been mired in controversy since its inception.

Researchers in the Digital Rights Group from the University of Toronto Citizen Lab, Amnesty International, and others, Dozens of cases have been documented for years NSO government agents have targeted journalists, dissidents, and human rights defenders in Hungary, India, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others.

NSO has long claimed that its spyware is designed not to target US phone numbers, likely to avoid hurting its chances of entering the US market. But the company He was arrested in 2021 It targeted about a dozen US government officials abroad.

Soon after, The US Department of Commerce prohibits Ban US companies from doing business with NSO by placing the spyware maker on the US Entity List. Since then, NSO has done just that I tried to get off the US government’s ban list, Until May 2025, with With the help of a lobbying firm Associated with the Trump administration.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab who has helped investigate NSO’s spyware breaches for a decade, told TechCrunch he was concerned about the acquisition.

“NSO is a company with a long history of opposing US interests and supporting the hacking of US officials. In what world can such a person be trusted to properly oversee a company like NSO Group?” Scott Railton said, referring to Simmonds.

“Moving forward, my real concern is that NSO has actively tried to enter the United States and sell its products to American police forces in American cities. This dictatorial technology does not belong anywhere near Americans, or our constitutionally protected rights or freedoms.”

NSO has changed hands before.

NSO Group was originally founded by Nev Carmi, Shalev Hulio, and Omri Lavie acquired By US private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014. Lavie and Hulio She regained control of the company In 2019 with the help of European private equity firm Novalpina. Then, in 2021, the California-based Berkeley Research Group He took over management From the box. In 2023, Lavi collect of NSO as majority owner.