Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Group is Wildly Profitable Despite Concerns Over Misuse of its Technology, Leaked Financials Show (businessinsider.com) 8
An anonymous reader shares a report: The secretive Israeli spyware company NSO Group gained notoriety following allegations that its hacking tool Pegasus was used by governments like Saudi Arabia and Mexico to track dissidents and journalists. A few months later, the company was acquired for $1 billion by its cofounders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie alongside the private equity firm Novalpina Capital. To get that deal done, the founders raised money through a debt offering led by Credit Suisse and Jefferies. The banks reportedly struggled to sell the debt due to ethical concerns, but in the end it found buyers in mutual funds including BlackRock and Principal Financial Group, as well as collateralized loan obligation (CLO) management firms Ellington Management Group and Saratoga Investment Corp. Why would so many financial institutions align themselves with a company with a contentious reputation? NSO Group is high growth, and it's wildly profitable, according to a person who saw the debt offering circulated by the company earlier this year who shared its contents with Business Insider. And it did that all with just 60 customers.
Rules of Acquisition (Score:2)
Rule #10: Greed is eternal.
Re: (Score:3)
It is probably more like:
"Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Group is Wildly Profitable because of Concerns Over Misuse of its Technology, Leaked Financials Show"
Crimes pay.
Contentious reputation (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, although I rather wonder how many of NSO Group's customers have found the backdoors in the software they bought.
Spyware is wildly profitable? (Score:2)
Say it ain't so!
why is this news? (Score:1)