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posted by janrinok on Monday May 21 2018, @06:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the right,-let's-go-to-the-bar dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

"It has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business."

Cambridge Analytica LLC, the American arm of the London-based data analytics firm of the same name, filed for bankruptcy in federal court in New York on Friday.

The company submitted a voluntary formal petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy—liquidation. That document reveals the company has between $1 and $10 million in debt with very little assets. On May 2, SCL Elections Ltd. and its other British affiliates filed similar "insolvency" documents with UK authorities.

It was revealed last month that a 2014 survey app created at the behest of Cambridge Analytica required Facebook login credentials and provided the survey creator access to their friends' public profile data. In the end, this system captured data from 87 million Facebook users. This data trove wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, the British data analytics firm, which worked with clients like the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

NBC News reported Friday that the company's May 2 shutdown hit employees abruptly, with many remaining employees filing out of their Fifth Avenue office in Manhattan directly to a nearby Irish pub.

[...] The Friday court document also notes that the attorney preparing the filing was paid for by Emerdata, a new data analytics firm founded by many of the same people who were formerly involved in Cambridge Analytica. Emerdata, like Cambridge Analytica, is largely funded by the Mercer family, who are well-known Republican donors and Trump supporters. Rebekah Mercer was named as a director to Emerdata in March 2018. What exactly Emerdata does or how it will operate going forward remains a bit of a mystery.

[...] Stephen Spaulding, the chief of strategy at advocacy group Common Cause and a former special counsel at the FEC [Federal Election Commission], told Ars that he guessed that listing was because of a pending legal complaint brought to the FEC.

"The reason they would be listed in a bankruptcy would be that this pending legal action might leave them exposed legally and maybe that's why it has to be disclosed," he said. "Why they're listed as a creditor would be a question for a bankruptcy lawyer."

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/cambridge-analytica-files-for-bankruptcy-amidst-siege-of-negative-attention/


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @06:28AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @06:28AM (#682064)

    and the cockroaches scurry off. great. what will they come up with next?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by BsAtHome on Monday May 21 2018, @06:38AM (6 children)

      by BsAtHome (889) on Monday May 21 2018, @06:38AM (#682066)

      They already have a new entity set up and will continue their old business under a new name.

      Or, with other words, SNAFU.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 21 2018, @06:42AM (2 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 21 2018, @06:42AM (#682068) Journal

        https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/cambridge-analytica-won-t-be-revived-under-new-company-name [bloomberg.com]

        We were typing posts at the same time. See that link - CA and Emerdata claim that operations are shut down. Claim, anyway.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @08:22AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @08:22AM (#682077)

          Meaning "Oh shit, they already know about Emerdata. Cancel that one too while we think up a third name."

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Monday May 21 2018, @10:56AM

        by driverless (4770) on Monday May 21 2018, @10:56AM (#682102)

        They already have a new entity set up and will continue their old business under a new name.

        Yeah, that's SOP for companies like this. You set them up so they're licensees for IP held by other, shell companies, and when the licensee company is wound up a new one pops up shortly afterwards and continues business as before. The (informal) legal name for them is "judgement-proof companies".

      • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday May 22 2018, @02:11AM

        by TheGratefulNet (659) on Tuesday May 22 2018, @02:11AM (#682501)

        just like restaurants who have a food poisoning, go out of business in one name and pop right back up under another name.

        similar to how small furniture stores operate (it seems its built in to their business model; go into debt; declare a 'going out of business' sale, stiff the creditors and come back with a new name; lather rinse repeat).

        the system is supported by the ruling class and they LIKE it this way.

        ...don't expect any change in this century ;(

        wheee! the race to the bottom is FUN.

        --
        "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
      • (Score: 1) by MrBoogers on Tuesday May 22 2018, @02:53AM

        by MrBoogers (6894) on Tuesday May 22 2018, @02:53AM (#682513)

        And they are located in the same building and the same office as the old company. Nothing to see here! Business as usual.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 21 2018, @06:40AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 21 2018, @06:40AM (#682067) Journal

    Everything was skimmed off already. Desks, chairs, even the light bulbs have been carried away already. Some creative accounting, and it all looks legal on paper. http://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-executives-and-mercer-family-launch-emerdata-2018-3 [businessinsider.com]

    Odd, though. A related link pops up in my search - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/cambridge-analytica-won-t-be-revived-under-new-company-name [bloomberg.com] Emerdata is also closing?

    So, let me try to figure out this scenario. CA is publicly exposed for unethical conduct. They may or may not be able to defend themselves legally, but they just say "screw it" and change the sign on the front door, and call themselves Emerdata. However, the public ethics issue doesn't go away, and the legal issues seem to be mounting. So, the new sign comes down - and - where do the people go?

    This does bear some watching. Anyone really interested should make a list of names, and keep up with them. Search for each individual on that list every couple months, to see what has happened to them. Junior executives, on up. I haven't seen any high ranking tech/engineer's names - I guess some could be found.

    This reminds me of the runup to the invasion of Iraq. It was a relatively simple matter to search for all those "nuclear physicists" who were running Saddam's nuclear program. Most could be found in academia, some could be found working in foreign countries, and yet others held jobs in the public sector. No - at that point in time, you couldn't account for all of Saddam's physicists, but it was almost all of them. The remainder weren't capable of running a nuclear research program.

    In this case, keeping track of people may well expose the new company's name that takes all this invasive "research" forward.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday May 21 2018, @06:49AM

      by bradley13 (3053) on Monday May 21 2018, @06:49AM (#682069) Homepage Journal

      Same as the 2008 banking crisis: the big players just stayed quiet for a couple of years. Then they popped up again, in CxO positions of different investment companies, hedge funds, etc.. It will be the same here: the 1-percenters involved will land on their feet, doing the same dirty game in a different corner office.

      I still assert that CA did absolutely nothing wrong. They bought and downloaded data from Facebook, because that's what Facebook does: sell people's data. It was the "getting caught by the public", and worse, "getting caught working for the wrong side" that caused all the uproar.

      Facebook has just as many users as before. CA is shuffling the chairs, and changing the sign on the door. Nothing to see here, plebe, go on about your business.

      --
      Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday May 21 2018, @06:55AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Monday May 21 2018, @06:55AM (#682070) Journal

    Part of the SOP they learned from venture capital firms: load with debt, file for bankruptcy, have protected C-suite executives jump ship just before step two.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @09:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @09:14AM (#682085)

    The Mercers are also big investors in Breitbart.com [buzzfeed.com].

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @01:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @01:13PM (#682139)

    just can't wait to see how you guys find a way to blame the jews for this

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @12:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @12:43AM (#682475)

      I see what you did there, loser.

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