Facebook data scandal drives Cambridge Analytica to liquidate: report

Cambridge Analytica, the data firm accused of misusing Facebook user information during the 2016 presidential election cycle, is said to be liquidating assets and kicking employees out of its London offices.

Executives at the data firm held an hour-long meeting with employees where they told them the company was liquidating assets in order to pay off creditors after failing to find a suitable buyer, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which cited an employee who attended that meeting. Cambridge Analytica also asked all remaining employees to leave its London office.

Cambridge Analytica had not returned FOX Business' request for comment at the time of publication.

While Cambridge Analytica said it would shut down operations in May following a decline in business and public backlash over how it mishandled data obtained from Facebook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the company was searching for a buyer.

The firm filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. last week, listing the value of its assets somewhere between $100,001 and $500,000. Liabilities were estimated to be as high as $10 million.

During the U.S. election, Cambridge Analytica gained access to the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users via an app, which scraped user data in an attempt to create targeted political advertisements and messaging. Only about 300,000 users agreed to use the app, the rest of the data was obtained from friends of those users without their knowledge.