The Wall Street Journal

Verint Systems may buy Israeli-based NSO Group for about $1 billion

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An Israeli woman walks in front of the building housing the Israeli NSO group, on August 28, 2016, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.

U.S. software company Verint Systems Inc. is in talks to buy NSO Group, an Israeli maker of cyber surveillance products, for about $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.

NSO is known for selling military-grade technology including Pegasus spyware mainly to government security agencies. Verint  has offered to pay NSO’s controlling shareholder, San Francisco-based private-equity firm Francisco Partners, with its own stock and assumed debt, the person said. Francisco Partners would become the largest shareholder in Melville, New York-based Verint if the deal is completed, the person said. Verint trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a market value of about $2.8 billion.

Spokeswomen for Verint and Francisco Partners declined to comment. NSO founders and shareholders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie declined to comment.

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