Cambridge Analytica Phoenix Rising

Anyone who has watched The Great Hack or followed the story about Cambridge Analytica in the news and their roles in the 2016 US Elections or the Brexit campaign will know that Cambridge Analytica was put into liquidation and ceased to exist as a company in 2018. But what happened to all that technology, know-how and the intellectual property (IP)?

Cambridge Analaytica was part of the SCL group of companies. In fact it was called SCL USA at formation in January 2015 until April 2016 when the name was changed. The SCL group had for a long time trained western military and the CIA on SyOps (Psychological Operations). Cambridge Analytica (CA) was the commercialization of that technology for political use which was very successful - until it all went very badly wrong.

If you want to know about that story watch The Great Hack on Netflix.

When it all went wrong it knocked over 10 companies in the UK alone, but rising from the rubble are at least five companies that are directly linked to CA and it's technology.

They are: Emerdata, Firecrest Technologies, SCL Insight, Fanalytica, and Auspex.

Each of these companies shows its use of, in some form, the technology of CA. Fanalytica (www.fanalytica.ai) for example uses this to help companies build followers on social media.

In the excitement over the scandal of Facebook, CA, the US Election and Brexit, there seems to be a big part of the picture that is blank - who owned CA's technology and where is it now?

This is where the story gets sketchy.

In a High Court judgement dated 17 April 2019, The Honourable Mr Justice Norris, found that CA creditors were owed at least 928,000 pounds but values the tangible assets at just 49,400 pounds. The 700 TB of data is with the Information Commissions Office (ICO) for a criminal investigation, but where is the millions and millions of pounds worth of software code: the algorithms, the engines and the trained Artificial Intelligence (AI) that runs the analytics used? This is the true value of CA. It's not with the liquidators, so who has it?

As with all these things the answer is simple: "follow the money!"

Two of these companies, Emerdata and Firecrest Technologies were created after the Facebook CA scandal blew up, both with key directors from CA running these businesses. One survives - Emerdata Limited, which has a somewhat interesting group of investors and directors.

First the money: Jenifer and Rebekah Mercer, children of the hedge fund billionaire, Robert Mercer, bring the money. Rebekah being described as "the most powerful woman in GOP politics" is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump who introduced CA to the 2016 Trump campaign, and to which she contributed US$25M. Together the Mercers own 79% of Emerdata. Other than politics, what reason would the Mercers be involved in this company?

Next you have the sources: Alexander Nix and Julian Wheatland, who ran CA, hold stock in Emerdata, were CEO and COO but have now both resigned as directors. What did they bring to Emerdata that would let them resign in two and 11 months respectively, and retain 14% of the company?

All this lead to some interesting questions:

For the British High Court and the liquidators of Cambridge Analytica and the SCL group of companies: Why is the most valuable part of CA assets, the software that runs its analytic engines not on the asset register, and where has this gone?

For the American government and people concerned about interference in the 2020 election: Why has "the most powerful woman in GOP politics", Rebekah Mercer invested in a derivative company of CA? What does this mean for the Trump 2020 campaign, who used this technology to win the 2016 election, according to "The Great Hack"? Can you expect CA type interference in your next election?

It appears that out of the ashes of Cambridge Analytica the phoenix is rising.