New: My investigation of US private equity firm Francisco Partners & its little-known role backing companies that have sold some of the world's most repressive governments surveillance & censorship technology https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-26/private-equity-firm-francisco-partners-profits-from-surveillance-censorship

The story took a few months to put together & I'm grateful to the many people who helped me with it. It's based on interviews w/ about two dozen current & former employees at Francisco Partners & the businesses it’s financed, as well as internal documents & financial filings.

It shines light on Francisco Partners' secretive work with spyware maker NSO Group & companies such as Sandvine, Procera & Blue Coat -- whose equipment dictatorships have used to monitor & disrupt internet access.

Employees at some of these companies say Francisco Partners pushed a sales strategy that led to the provision of surveillance & censorship gear to authoritarian govts in places like Belarus, Uzbekistan & Eritrea, which is rated by rights groups more repressive than even N. Korea.

Francisco Partners has in recent years become one of the most important players in the lucrative surveillance/censorship tech trade, which is worth an estimated $15 billion annually. Yet the firm has largely evaded public scrutiny -- until now. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-26/private-equity-firm-francisco-partners-profits-from-surveillance-censorship