Bankruptcy, ABCs and wind-downs

Selling a company's data archive in bankruptcy or a wind-down

Trustees, ABC assignees and wind-down officers now hold something new of value: the email, chat and shared files of the business. AI companies pay for a written trail of real work, and through 2026 they have begun competing for it.

The headline case is Spirit Airlines. In its Chapter 11 case, Google won an auction for the airline's internal records at $10.0M, with Mercor as the backup bidder and micro1 offering $12.5M after the auction closed.

AI Data Offers research deskChecked against our methodology Updated October 28, 2026 3 min read 12 sources

Biggest reported bid: $12.5M (micro1, Spirit)
Typical wind-down deal: $10K to $100K
Wind-down data deals: 150+ via SimpleClosure
Court sales of an archive: 1 (Spirit)

In this guide

Why the archive now has a buyer

Liquidators have sold customer lists, domains and brands for years. The new part is a buyer for the internal record: email, Teams and Slack threads, shared drives and ticket queues. AI companies use this material to teach AI agents how real work gets done, which the public internet cannot show them.

The Spirit archive held roughly 100M emails plus 500M Teams items. Away from the courtroom, smaller versions of this market run through wind-down specialists. SimpleClosure reports 350+ listings on AssetHub since April 2026, and per MIT Technology Review, code or data now features in 47% of its transactions.

Where data sales have happened

Chapter 11
What has sold
One internal-communications archive to an AI buyer
Example
Spirit Airlines: Google at $10.0M, pending approval
Chapter 11 (consumer)
What has sold
Customer records sold with a brand
Example
Bed Bath & Beyond digital assets to Overstock, $21.5M
ABC
What has sold
Brand and customer database
Example
Zulily assets to Beyond, $4.5M plus costs
Voluntary wind-down
What has sold
Slack, Jira, email and code
Example
150+ deals through SimpleClosure, typically $10K to $100K

Route	What has sold	Example
Chapter 11	One internal-communications archive to an AI buyer	Spirit Airlines: Google at $10.0M, pending approval
Chapter 11 (consumer)	Customer records sold with a brand	Bed Bath & Beyond digital assets to Overstock, $21.5M
ABC	Brand and customer database	Zulily assets to Beyond, $4.5M plus costs
Voluntary wind-down	Slack, Jira, email and code	150+ deals through SimpleClosure, typically $10K to $100K

Most deals today close in voluntary wind-downs, where the founder or board controls the decision. For the full list, see every reported data sale.

Who decides whether the archive is sold

Chapter 7: the trustee, whose main job in an asset case is to turn non-exempt assets into cash for creditors. See Chapter 7 trustees.
Chapter 11: the debtor in possession, usually through a section 363 sale the court approves.
ABC: the assignee, outside court. See ABC data sales.
Wind-down: the board and founders. See closing your company.

In court cases, a consumer privacy ombudsman may review the sale, and unions, suppliers and regulators may object. Spirit drew six objections or joinders.

Who buys distressed company data

Three kinds of buyers show up: AI data companies that license directly (micro1, Mercor and others), wind-down brokers that run a process across several buyers (SimpleClosure, Sunset) and liquidation firms that have added data to their asset lists (Hilco). See AI data buyers for distressed companies and liquidators that sell data.

Guides in this section

FAQ

Questions, answered

Can a bankrupt company sell its emails and Slack to an AI company?

So far there is one reported US example. Google placed the top bid, $10.0M, for Spirit Airlines' archive, and that bid still needs the court's sign-off. Whether a sale works in your case turns on the judge, the privacy questions and who objects.

Who gets the money from a data sale in bankruptcy?

The estate. Proceeds go to creditors under the normal priority rules, the same as any other asset sale.

Is a court sale the only route?

No. Most data deals so far closed in voluntary wind-downs or through brokers, before or outside any court case.

What does a smaller company's archive sell for?

SimpleClosure reports its wind-down data deals typically run $10K to $100K. Spirit's eight-figure bid reflects an archive of about 100M emails.

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Sources

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