Selling data from a closed or closing company

Closed and closing companies are now a regular source of AI training data. MIT Technology Review reported on October 13, 2026 that AI labs are buying code and workspace data from shut-down startups, and that founder Keelan Miskell's winding-down crypto startup received about $25,000 for its codebase.

The money is real, but a closing company has less time, fewer staff and more people with a claim on the proceeds than an operating one. This guide covers who can sign, what buyers pay, what privacy law and the IRS still require and the order to do things in. A short section covers UK companies.

Can you sell data from a closed company?

You can sell data from a closed company if someone with legal authority still controls the company's property. Who that is depends on the company's status and the state where it is incorporated.

Timing catches founders out. Section 278 of the Delaware General Corporation Law continues a dissolved corporation for three years, or longer if the Court of Chancery directs, so that it can wind up its affairs and "dispose of and convey their property". It cannot carry on its original business. Other states set their own rules, so check the law where the company is incorporated and plan the license inside the wind-up period.

Authority to sign is the first check in our seller vetting standard: the person signing can bind the company, or the trustee, liquidator or board can act for a closed company.

What do buyers pay for a closed company's data?

Buyers usually pay tens of thousands of dollars for a small closed company's data, and a few large estates have drawn bids in the millions. Published figures are thin, so treat them as ranges rather than prices.

Spirit's archive is not typical. Fortune reported that its asset schedule listed about 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams items, plus code and operational records, and that no sale had received court approval as of September 14, 2026.

Brendan Mahony, chief executive of the closure service Sunset, told MIT Technology Review that his company values assets on headcount, years in operation, data volume and how the team used its tools. The same report said buyers quote very different numbers because their valuations rest on how many useful training tasks they expect the data to produce. Our guide to what your data is worth explains the main price factors.

What data can a closed company sell?

A closed company can usually sell its source code and its workspace data, and buyers value both most when they record real decisions. SimpleClosure's AssetHub lists two main categories: source code with repositories, documentation and tests, and workspace data from tools such as Slack, Google Drive, email, Notion and Figma.

MIT Technology Review reported that buyers want varied, deep records of real situations, such as disagreements and judgment calls, and that suppliers leave HR records out. In the Spirit case, Fortune reported that customer profiles and lists were excluded and that passenger fields in included systems had to be de-identified.

Our pages on workplace communications data and source code datasets set out what buyers check in each.

Do privacy promises still apply after a company closes?

Privacy promises still apply after a company closes, and whoever runs the closure becomes responsible for the personal data in its records. Bankruptcy does not create an exemption.

Section 363(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code stops a trustee selling personally identifiable information against the debtor's privacy policy unless the sale is consistent with that policy, or a consumer privacy ombudsman is appointed and the court approves. In the Spirit case, ombudsman Lucy Thomson asked for more time to investigate micro1 as a possible buyer, Fortune reported.

The FTC watches these sales. In a March 31, 2025 letter about the 23andMe bankruptcy, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson wrote that any sale of customer data "will be subject to the representations the Company has made to users about both privacy and data security", and that any purchaser should expressly agree to be bound by the company's privacy policies.

Outside bankruptcy, the rules for a trading company still apply. The CCPA treats a transfer of personal information for value as a sale unless the data is de-identified, and FTC staff warn against retroactive changes to privacy policies. That is why personal data is usually excluded or de-identified before a closed company's records are licensed. The wider rules are in our guide to CCPA, state privacy laws and GDPR.

The money from a closed company's data sale goes to the company, and from there to creditors and shareholders in the legal order of priority. In bankruptcy, the trustee distributes it. MIT Technology Review reported that proceeds typically go to senior creditors and investors, not to the employees whose messages make up much of the data.

That gap fuels objections. Spirit's flight attendants' unions and consumer privacy advocates filed objections to the sale, and the pilots' union argued that some safety records should stay confidential even after de-identification, according to Fortune.

Which IRS filings matter when a company closes?

The IRS filings that matter when a company closes start with the decision to dissolve. The IRS's closing a business page says you must file Form 966, Corporate Dissolution or Liquidation, if you adopt a resolution or plan to dissolve the corporation, and that you must file a final return for the year you close the business.

For corporations, the same page lists Form 4797 for each year you sell or exchange property used in the business. Ask your tax adviser how a data license fee should be reported, and agree the timing so it falls in a return the company will still file.

What risks are specific to a closing company?

The risks specific to a closing company come from time pressure and from the fact that the company will not be around to stand behind its promises.

• Lost access: software subscriptions lapse and admin accounts are deleted, so export before you cancel anything.
• Tool terms: check each vendor's terms on export and reuse. Hunton Andrews Kurth reported in August 2025 that Slack's revised API terms ban bulk export of data accessed through its APIs and its use in large language models.
• Third-party confidentiality: email and chat contain other companies' information covered by NDAs, as Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz warned in October 2026.
• Warranties: a dissolved company cannot pay out on an indemnity, so buyers may ask for a lower price, a holdback or insurance instead.
• Records retention: some records must be kept for legal or tax reasons, and licensing a copy does not change those duties.

How do you sell data from a closing company step by step?

You sell data from a closing company step by step by securing the data first and the buyer second. The order below keeps your options open while access still exists.

1. 1

   Freeze the data before shutting tools

   Take full exports of code repositories, email, chat, documents and tickets while admin access still exists. Store them read-only with a record of when and how they were made.

2. 2

   Confirm who can sign

   Check whether the board, a bankruptcy trustee or a debtor in possession holds authority, and get that confirmed in writing.

3. 3

   Decide what to exclude

   Remove HR, payroll, health and privileged material, customer lists and anything covered by restrictive client contracts.

4. 4

   De-identify what remains

   Follow a documented method, as set out in our de-identification guide.

5. 5

   Build the manifest

   Record sources, counts, date ranges and exclusions using our data manifest guide.

6. 6

   Approach buyers with redacted samples

   Share samples under a mutual NDA and compare offers on price, payment timing and what each buyer will do with the data.

7. 7

   Sign, transfer and close out

   Sign the license, transfer a fixed copy, delete any working copies as the license requires, and only then complete the final dissolution and tax filings.

If you hold UK or EU data

UK companies follow different closure rules, and they are stricter on timing.

• Liquidation: a liquidator in England and Wales can sell any of the company's property under Schedule 4 to the Insolvency Act 1986.
• Administration: the administrator can sign, if the sale fits the purpose of the administration.
• Dissolution: section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006 says that when a company is dissolved, "all property and rights whatsoever" it held pass to the Crown as bona vacantia, including copyright and database rights in its records, so the license must complete first.
• Data protection: the Insolvency Service's technical manual says data protection law "will not prevent the sale of a database", but that "selling it to a business for a different use is likely to be incompatible with the original purpose".
• Enforcement: in February 2020 the FCA, the ICO and the FSCS issued a joint statement warning that some insolvency practitioners had attempted to sell clients' personal data to claims management companies unlawfully.

If your company is closing or already in bankruptcy, book a free consultation. We will tell you whether buyers want what you hold and what needs to happen before the deadline. You can also compare closure-focused services such as SimpleClosure AssetHub.