WEST BANK (Bloomberg) – NSO Group Ltd., the scandal-plagued Zionist spyware company that’s defaulting on its debts, is exploring options that include shutting its controversial Pegasus unit and selling the entire company, according to people familiar with the matter.
Talks have been held with several investment funds about moves that include a refinancing or outright sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.
The prospective new owners include two American funds that have discussed taking control and closing Pegasus, one of the people said. Under that scenario, the funds would then inject about $200 million in fresh capital to “turn Pegasus into strictly defensive cyber security services’.
Pegasus software can track a user’s mobile phone, and it has landed NSO at the center of high-profile privacy and human rights abuse cases. The product was supplied to governments that used it to spy on political dissidents, journalists and human right activists. Pegasus was also reported to have been used in recent months to hack the mobile phones of at least nine State Department employees.
The company has said it sells the technology to law enforcement and government agencies to prevent crime and terrorism, and that it has ended contracts with clients that abused it. The U.S. Commerce Department nevertheless blacklisted NSO, which said in November it was seeking to reverse the decision, “given that our technologies support U.S. national security interests and policies.”
Apple Inc. has sued NSO, seeking to bar the spyware firm from using its products and services, and said it would start notifying users targeted by state-sponsored hacking.
The U.S. restrictions put added pressure on NSO, which needs to pay back about $450 million in debt, just two years after a management buyout that valued the company at about $1 billion. Moody’s Investors Service said last month there’s an increasing risk the company will violate the terms of its loans.