US Investors Acquire Spyware Maker NSO Group
▼ Summary
– An American investment group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds has acquired controlling ownership of Israeli spyware maker NSO Group by investing tens of millions of dollars.
– NSO Group will remain headquartered in Israel and continue to be regulated by Israeli authorities, including the Ministry of Defense, despite the American acquisition.
– As part of the deal, co-founder and executive chairman Omri Lavie will end his involvement with the company, while the exact investors and investment amount were not disclosed.
– NSO Group has faced controversy for years due to documented cases of its spyware being used by government clients to target journalists, dissidents, and human rights defenders globally.
– The company was previously banned by the U.S. Commerce Department from trading with American firms and has attempted to re-enter the U.S. market, raising concerns about the acquisition’s implications for American interests.
A significant shift in ownership has occurred at NSO Group, the Israeli developer of sophisticated surveillance software. The company confirmed that a U.S. investment group has acquired controlling ownership, injecting tens of millions of dollars into the controversial firm. This development follows a report from Israeli tech news outlet Calcalist, which identified the purchasing consortium as being led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds.
NSO spokesperson Oded Hershowitz verified the transaction but chose not to disclose the precise financial figures or the identities of the other investors involved. He was keen to emphasize that despite the American investment, the company’s headquarters and core operations will remain in Israel. NSO will continue to be regulated by Israeli authorities, including the Ministry of Defense, ensuring it stays under the nation’s operational and regulatory oversight.
This acquisition appears to be the culmination of a process that began in 2023, when The Guardian reported that Simonds and an associate were exploring a bid for the company. As part of the finalized arrangement, Calcalist noted that co-founder and executive chairman Omri Lavie will end his involvement with the spyware maker. Lavie declined to comment on the matter, and repeated attempts to reach Simonds and his company, STX Entertainment, for a statement were unsuccessful.
This move to U.S. ownership marks a dramatic turn for a company that has been a perennial source of international controversy. For years, researchers from organizations like the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and Amnesty International have documented numerous instances where NSO’s government clients used its Pegasus spyware to target journalists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents across the globe, from Hungary and India to Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
Despite NSO’s long-standing assertion that its technology is designed to avoid targeting U.S. phone numbers, the company was implicated in a 2021 incident involving the hacking of approximately a dozen American government officials stationed abroad. This led to swift action from the U.S. Commerce Department, which placed NSO on its Entity List, effectively banning American companies from doing business with it. Since the blacklisting, NSO has actively sought removal from the list, even engaging a lobbying firm with ties to the Trump administration as recently as May 2025.
The acquisition has raised serious concerns among digital rights experts. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab with a decade of experience investigating NSO, expressed deep skepticism. He questioned the logic of allowing an individual to oversee a company with a documented history of acting against American interests and facilitating the hacking of U.S. officials. Scott-Railton’s primary worry is that NSO has repeatedly attempted to penetrate the U.S. market and sell its products to domestic police forces. He argues that this “dictator tech” poses a direct threat to the constitutionally protected rights and freedoms of American citizens.
This is not the first time NSO Group has changed hands. After its founding by Niv Karmi, Shalev Hulio, and Omri Lavie, the firm was purchased by the U.S. private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014. Control was returned to Lavie and Hulio in 2019 with backing from the European firm Novalpina. Management of the fund was later assumed by the Berkeley Research Group in 2021, before Lavie once again became the majority owner in 2023, setting the stage for this latest transaction.
(Source: TechCrunch)
