Rumor: Cambridge Analytica management is working on a ‘restart’ under a different name

The folks behind Cambridge Analytica may be continuing under a different name. Executives of the British data company founded Emerdata last year, a company that may continue the activities of Cambridge Analytica.

Employees at Cambridge Analytica and parent company SCL tell The New York Times that Emerdata could be a “rebrand” and that the new company could continue with Cambridge Analytica’s data and intellectual property. The data company filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday.

The management would have been working on the possibility to transfer all activities from Cambridge Analytica to Emerdata for some time. SCL director Nigel Oakes told Channel 4 last month that he believed Emerdata existed to buy up the businesses of SCL and Cambridge Analytica. The New York Times further reports that Cambridge Analytica may want to sell its data and intellectual property through Emerdata.

Cambridge Analytica shut down on Wednesday, as many customers and suppliers no longer wanted to have anything to do with the company after the privacy scandal surrounding the misuse of Facebook data. The data company denies the allegations. Cambridge Analytica says it has been vilified for activities it claims are not only legal but widely accepted as “standard part of online advertising in the political and commercial arenas.”