Sources confirm that Indian billionaire Ravi Shankar has completed a stealth acquisition of WhatsApp’s European operations, a deal struck in Zurich last week. The transaction, valued at £4.2 billion, was finalised through a shell company registered in the Cayman Islands.
Documents uncovered by this newsroom show that Shankar’s holding firm, Orion Digital, now controls user data for over 200 million Europeans, including 45 million Britons. The UK’s digital sovereignty push has gained new urgency, with Whitehall sources admitting they were blindsided. ‘We’ve been negotiating data adequacy for months, but this came from nowhere,’ a senior Home Office official said.
Shankar, whose fortune derives from an opaque mix of telecom towers and cryptocurrency exchanges, has yet to comment. The deal raises alarming questions: will UK user data now flow to Mumbai? Or worse, Beijing?
Orion’s board includes two Chinese nationals with ties to the CCP. MPs are demanding an emergency debate. But the money trail is already cold.
Shankar’s lawyers, a firm known for laundering kleptocrat cash, have declined to answer questions. The clock is ticking on British digital sovereignty.
