Hollywood producer, Wrigley chewing gum heir explore takeover of assets of NSO that made Pegasus spyware

Washington, June 15

An unlikely cast of characters, including a Hollywood producer and the heir to the Wrigley chewing gum fortune, are exploring a possible bid to take control of assets owned by the NSO Group, the Israeli company behind one of the worlds most sophisticated cyber-weapons, according to a media report.

Robert Simonds, a US financier whose credits include producing several Adam Sandler films, has been engaged in talks to acquire the blacklisted spyware company's assets, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, The Guardian reported.

A firm owned by Simonds's friend William 'Beau' Wrigley - who was an heir to his family's chewing gum fortune and has since become involved in the cannabis industry - has conducted due diligence in connection to a possible NSO deal, The Guardian reported.

NSO, which is closely regulated by Israel's ministry of defence, sells its spyware to government clients around the world. It has faced intense scrutiny in the US, where the Joe Biden administration in 2021 took the extraordinary step of placing the company on a blacklist after accusing it of selling software tools that "enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression", The Guardian reported.

NSO has said it sells its spyware tool - called Pegasus - to government clients for use in fighting serious crime, like terrorism, and that it investigates credible allegations of abuse.

Experts have been speculating about NSO's future since it was added to the US blacklist, which bars the transfer of US technology to the company without a special licence.

NSO is also being sued by Apple and Facebook in the US because of allegations that it targeted the two companies' users. NSO has argued that its government clients - not NSO itself - controls its hacking tools, The Guardian reported.