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BENGALURU | NEW DELHI: The lawsuit filed by Facebook-owned WhatsApp against Israeli cyber technology company NSO Group has not only revealed surveillance of lawyers, journalists and activists but also the role played by private equity funds in the growth of the industry that often functions in a grey zone.NSO cofounders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie did a classic management buyout of the company from San Francisco-based PE firm Francisco Partners using the financial muscle of London-based Novalpina Capital for $1 billion. Francisco Partners made about eight times the $120 million it paid to buy the company five years before. Although it had announced the sale on February 14, 2019, in a press release, that communication is no longer visible on its website. It is, however, part of the documents in the WhatsApp suit against NSO filed in a California court October 29 for allegedly hacking its servers and systems.Francisco Partners was co-founded in 1999 by former TPG Capital principal Dipanjan ‘DJ’ Deb along with David Stanton, another senior TPG executive, who left the company in 2005 as managing partner, and others. Francisco Partners is largely said to be technology-focused, with a penchant for surveillance technology companies in the growth stage. According to those who know the company, Francisco Partners “typically buys promising companies for cheap and helps them grow, before aiming for a substantial return”.The company, according to persons ET spoke to, also “actively solicits clients for their investee companies”.To be sure, this is not unusual among private equity firms . Novalpina, the PE firm which helped acquire the NSO Group, on the other hand, buys companies with “proven track records”.On Friday, ET reached out to Dipanjan Deb and his assistant with questions. That mail was forwarded to Francisco Partners’ public relations agency. In response to ET’s questions, a public relations executive on behalf of Francisco Partners said, “They no longer own either company mentioned below.” In an email, ET had asked specific questions about Francisco Partners’ involvement with NSO Group while they owned it, awareness of the latter’s activities, besides its erstwhile ownership of CrossMatch. Deb is said to be a board member of CrossMatch, according to his Stanford alumni page.Although several surveillance technology vendors such as NSO claim they sell their products only to governments or state enforcement agencies, many of them insist on a company as a counterparty in their contracts. A person who runs a similar firm told ET that the product these companies offer is very expensive and often runs the risk of failing. Entering into a contract with a company ensures enforceability and payment. NSO’s Pegasus , for instance, cost a Ghanaian company over $8 million a year to track just 25 mobile phones. The fat bottom lines of these companies are a major attraction for private funds but it also comes attached with risk to reputation when things go wrong.Francisco Partners invested in and later acquired CrossMatch, a certified supplier of biometric devices according to its website. In an August 2018 press release highlighting sales of its ‘U.are.U’ and ‘TouchChip’ line of “readers, modules and sensors” exceeding 750,000 units, the company said, “CrossMatch has a long history of providing high-performing biometric enrollment and verification devices in support of Aadhaar”. CrossMatch, according to media reports, received its certificate of approval from the Indian government in 2011.ET also reached out to the UIDAI spokesperson, with specific queries around the nature of relationship between CrossMatch and the government agency. At the time of going to press, UIDAI was yet to respond.Its Indian partner, CrossMatch said, was a Bengaluru-based company called AqTronics Technologies Limited. In September last year, Francisco Partners sold Cross-Match to an Austin-headquartered company, HID Global.But Francisco Partners’ investments and ownership of surveillance technology companies like NSO Group don’t end there. According to Citizen Lab, Francisco Partners previously invested in a company called Blue Coat, which sells “network filtering and monitoring solutions”. In 2013, Citizen Lab had revealed that Blue Coat’s technology was used by regimes in Syria, Iran, and Sudan.Another company Francisco Partners currently owns is California-based Procera Networks. Procera, according to a report in Forbes two years ago, was allegedly helping the Recep Erdogan-led Turkish regime “spy on its citizens”. Francisco Partners, according to media reports, paid $240 million to acquire Procera, in “mid-2015”.Media reports also said that global private equity firm The Blackstone Group was keen on acquiring 40% of NSO Group for a reported valuation of $400 million in August 2017, but ended talks following complaints and concerns by global privacy-focused groups such as AccessNow and Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Last year, Verint Systems, the American software company, was also looking to acquire NSO Group in a stock and cash deal worth about $1 billion, but the deal fell through.