Spyware maker NSO Group confirms acquisition by US traders

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

NSO spokesperson Oded Hershowitz told TechCrunch on Friday that “an American investment group has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company and has acquired controlling ownership.” 

Confirmation of the deal came soon after Israeli tech news website Calcalist reported Friday that a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds agreed to purchase the surveillance tech maker in a deal valued in the tens of millions of dollars.  

Hershowitz declined to specify the amount invested, as well as who the investors are.  

“This investment does not mean that the company is moving out of Israeli regulatory or operational control,” said Hershowitz. “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 as there was no agreement made.) 

In 2023, The Guardian reported that Simonds and an associate, through their investment firm, were exploring making a bid to take control of NSO. The deal never materialized. 

Calcalist reported that as part of the new deal with Simonds, NSO’s 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 Simonds, nor his Hollywood company STX Entertainment, responded to our request for comment, either. 

From a U.S. ban to U.S. ownership 

NSO Group has been mired in controversy since its very beginning. 

Researchers at the digital rights group from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, Amnesty International, and others, have for years documented dozens of cases where NSO’s government customers targeted and hacked journalists, dissidents, and human rights defenders in Hungary, India, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, among others.  

NSO has long claimed that its spyware is designed to not target U.S. phone numbers, likely to avoid hurting its chances to enter the U.S. market. But the company was caught in 2021 targeting about a dozen U.S. government officials abroad. 

Soon after, the U.S. Commerce Department banned American companies from trading with NSO by putting the spyware maker on the U.S. Entities List. Since then, NSO has tried to get off the U.S. government’s blocklist, as recently as May 2025, with the help of a lobbying firm tied to the Trump administration.  

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

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

“Going further, my real concern is that NSO has strenuously tried to enter the United States and sell their product to American police forces in U.S. cities. This dictator tech does not belong anywhere near Americans, or our constitutionally protect[ed] rights or freedoms.” 

NSO’s ownership has exchanged hands before.  

Originally founded by Niv Karmi, Shalev Hulio, and Omri Lavie, NSO Group was acquired by U.S. private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014. Lavie and Hulio retook control of the company in 2019 with help from European private equity firm Novalpina. Then, in 2021, the California-based Berkeley Research Group took over management of the fund. In 2023, Lavie retook control of NSO as majority owner.