NSO Group in talks with US investors over possible sale

NSO Group, fraught by lawsuits and bad press over sales of its phone-hacking spyware, is reportedly in talks to sell off its assets to a US-based venture capital fund.

The Israeli cyber technology firm, which was recently targeted by US sanctions and has seen its revenue sink amid a string of scandals around the world and at home, is in advanced negotiations with Integrity Partners, Haaretz reported this week.

NSO Group described the report as full of “inaccuracies and half truths,” but confirmed that it was in talks with US-based funds, without naming any.

“The company generates great interest with a few US-based funds, and the company is in talks with them all,” it said in a statement carried by Reuters Wednesday.

According to the Haaretz report Tuesday, an Integrity Partners subsidiary by the name of Integrity Labs would be created to take over the company and pump $300 million into transforming the firm from a veritable pariah back into a going concern.

The infusion would help NSO Group avoid defaulting on a debt it took on for a 2019 buyout, according to Bloomberg, which also reported on the sale talks.

NSO has faced mounting scrutiny over its flagship Pegasus software, which can seamlessly infiltrate a mobile phone and allow its operators to gain access to the device’s contents and location history. Confirmed targets have included Mexican and Saudi journalists, British attorneys, Palestinian human rights activists and Uganda-based US diplomats.

In November, the US Commerce Department blacklisted NSO, barring the company from using certain US technologies, saying its tools had been used to “conduct transnational repression.” The global tech giants Facebook and Apple have filed lawsuits against NSO over hacks against their products.