Former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman has been appointed chairman of the Israeli spyware developer NSO Group, the company announced Sunday.
Friedman, who served in Jerusalem during Donald Trump’s first term, joins NSO as the company finalizes its sale to a group of American investors, a move executives hope will help remove the firm from the U.S. Commerce Department’s blacklist and allow it to resume operations in the United States.
“The company's most important asset is you – the employees of NSO,” Friedman told employees, according to a company statement. “The researchers and engineers of NSO belong to the outstanding group of Israeli high-tech."
In October, reports surfaced that a consortium of U.S. investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds had reached an agreement to acquire NSO in a deal valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Since March 2023, NSO’s shares have been held by a Luxembourg-based holding company solely owned by Omri Lavie, one of the firm’s founders. The shares were transferred to Lavie by NSO’s lending syndicate, which had extended a $500 million loan as part of a process to buy back stakes from Francisco Partners, the private equity firm that previously controlled the company.
Under the new agreement, NSO will shed its debt, and Lavie’s involvement will come to an end, completing a new chapter for the controversial company whose Pegasus spyware has been accused of being used by governments worldwide to target journalists, activists, and political figures.