Verint reportedly negotiating billion-dollar merger with NSO Group

Verint is in talks to create one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies with a merger worth approximately a billion dollars between its security division and Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, CNBC reports.

An anonymous source told Reuters that NSO Group would continue to operate independently as a new division within Verint, and that the deal was expected to be completed within days.

NSO supplies governments and law enforcement agencies with mobile surveillance tools, and was in the news in 2017 after the Mexican government reportedly used its Pegasus mobile spyware against international investigators.

Francisco Partners holds a majority stake in NSO, after paying $120 million in 2014, and would become Verint’s largest stakeholder if the deal goes through. Verint stock was trading above $42 per share on Thursday, putting the company value at roughly $2.7 billion.

It was reported last year in Israeli media that U.S. private equity firm Blackstone was considering purchasing part of NSO, but no agreement was reached.

Verint recently released its new FaceDetect software to enable automated facial recognition capabilities on existing video security systems.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  facial recognition  |  Verint