Bloomberg News said that talks been held with several investment funds about moves that include a refinancing or outright sale.

The company has brought in advisers from Moelis & Co. to assist, and lenders are getting advice from lawyers at Willkie Farr & Gallagher which apparently means “say no more”.

The prospective new owners include two American funds that have discussed taking control and closing Pegasus.

Under that cunning plan, the funds would then inject about $200 million in fresh capital to turn the know-how behind Pegasus into strictly defensive cyber security services, and perhaps develop the Israeli company's drone technology, one of the people said.

Pegasus software can track a user's mobile phone, and its misuse has landed NSO at the centre of high-profile privacy abuse cases. The product allegedly was supplied to governments that used it to spy on political dissidents, journalists, and human right activists mostly because they had iPhones.