The news was announced during a conference call led by Julian Wheatland, the current chairman of the SCL Group who was reportedly tapped to take over as Cambridge Analytica's next CEO. However it looks like the outfit feels that the Facebook scandal has totally tained its brand and Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections will now close.

During the call, Wheatland said that the board determined that rebranding the company's current offerings in the current environment is "futile." Cambridge Analytica and SCL have offices in London, New York City, Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The announcement was rescheduled more than half a dozen times suggesting that there might have been a few cunning plans on the table which also fell through.

In explaining the decision to close the offices, Wheatland cited the ongoing investigations into Cambridge Analytica's massive data harvesting scandal, damage to the company's reputation, and loss of clients.

In March, Britain's information commissioner announced that she was seeking a warrant to investigate any misconduct by the data analytics firm, looking to search both its offices and its servers. UK authorities raided the London office later that month, but have yet to release their findings. Meanwhile, embattled former CEO Alexander Nix refused to testify before the British Parliamentary media committee regarding the firm's misuse of Facebook user data.

A press release said that over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica had 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."

It said that the siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the Company’s customers and suppliers.

The closure of Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Group certainly does not herald the end of the investigation into the issue of how personal data was handled. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has already stated plans to keep examining the affair and "pursue individuals and directors as appropriate and necessary even where companies may no longer be operating".