Capital Calls-Cellebrite good times

Cellebrite DI

08/04/2021 20:23

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are their own.)
    NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Concise insights
on global finance in the Covid-19 era.
 
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SOMETHING TO CELLEBRITE. Controversy over cops breaking into
people’s cellphones is heading to a stock exchange near you.
Israeli digital intelligence outfit Cellebrite is merging with a
special-purpose acquisition company  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2M12LB, TWC Tech
Holdings II  TWCT.O , at an equity valuation https://cf-media.cellebrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Cellebrite_Investor-Presentation_Apr-2021_Final.pdf
 of $2.4 billion. 
    Cellebrite majors on unlocking digital devices unearthed in
criminal investigations and knitting all the data it finds
together with other material, like video footage. It claims
law-enforcement clients in all of America’s 20 largest cities,
for example, and in 25 of the European Union’s 27 national
police forces. The company says investigators use its name as a
verb https://cf-media.cellebrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Cellebrite-Transaction-Webcast-Transcript-8Apr2021.pdf.
 
    The company helped the FBI https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-cellebrite/israeli-firm-helping-fbi-to-open-encrypted-iphone-report-idUSKCN0WP17J
 unlock a shooter’s iPhone when the U.S. Justice Department was
fighting Apple  AAPL.O  for access back in 2016. That spat was
about privacy and limits  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N29L0OE, if any, on encryption
available to consumers. Like, say, Palantir Technologies
 PLTR.N , another law-enforcement favorite, Cellebrite boss
Yossi Carmil talks about serving the common good, not the bad
guys. Maybe a Nasdaq listing will make that easier for the
public to, well, police. (By Richard Beales) 
    
    On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews
    
    Earlier in Capital Calls:
    
    Robinhood makes merry mischief  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2M11JY
    Vaccine startup’s U.S. IPO dents UK ambitions  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2M1373
    Macron sacrifices elite énarques  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2M1352
    KPN’s buyout window gets narrower  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2M129Q
    ASOS prepares for Roaring Twenties  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2M126Y     

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| Editing by John Foley and Amanda Gomez)