Image copyright Reuters Image caption Cambridge Analytica's name has already been taken down from the wall of the London office it occupied

Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the centre of the Facebook data-sharing scandal, is shutting down. The company, which did work for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, said it lost "virtually all" customers and suppliers as a result of reports that it improperly obtained information from tens of millions of Facebook Inc. users. The statement said that "parallel bankruptcy proceedings will soon be commenced on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and the certain of the company's US affiliates in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York." The companies addressed the allegations contained in the wave of scrutiny they received, saying “Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the company’s efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.”

In further denying the allegations, the companies said an independent investigator who was hired to probe the companies’ practices found no wrongdoing. The statement added that media “siege” had “driven away virtually all of the company’s customers and suppliers” and “as a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business, which left Cambridge Analytica with no realistic alternative to placing the company into administration.”

Different accounts said it was possible that as many as 87 million users’ data might have been collected in the Facebook scandal linked to Cambridge Analytica in a ruthless bid to profile prospective voters and target them for campaign ads in several countries, especially the United States.
Cambridge Analytica announces that it is closing down as a result of the scandal.