Your software providers
If your software vendor fails or is sold, your records may go with it
Your company's records live in other companies' software. When one of those providers is acquired or fails, the data it holds can become an asset in someone else's deal.
The Spirit Airlines bankruptcy made that concrete. Here is what to check in your own contracts.
In this guide
01
What happened in the Spirit Airlines sale
During Spirit's bankruptcy its internal archive was put up for sale. Inside were some 176,000 staff records, half a billion Teams messages and around 100 million emails. Google won the auction at $10M over Mercor at $7.5M, and micro1 then offered $12.5M. Springshot, a vendor, objected on the grounds that it owned some data produced by its own service.
Read the full story in our Spirit Airlines guide.
02
What do your software contracts say?
- Who owns data generated by the service, you or the vendor?
- Can the vendor use your data to train models or license it on?
- What happens to your data if the vendor is sold, shuts down or goes bankrupt?
- How do you get a full export, and how long do you have?
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz advises checking your vendor contracts with these scenarios in mind.
03
Keep your own copy
Exporting your own records on a schedule is the easiest safeguard, and it keeps the door open to licensing them yourself. Per MIT Technology Review, code or data now features in 47% of SimpleClosure's deals, a clear sign archives count as assets.
FAQ
Questions, answered
What was in the Spirit Airlines archive?
Roughly 176,000 staff records, 500M Teams messages and 100M emails.
Do failed companies' archives get sold?
Frequently. Code or data is part of 47% of SimpleClosure deals, according to MIT Technology Review.
Can a vendor sell data I created in its software?
That depends on your contract. Read the ownership, use and insolvency clauses.
What should I do now?
Export your records regularly and check your key vendor contracts.
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Keep reading
Sources
Every number on this page links back to one of these.
- 1Chapter 11 Cases: Spirit Airlines data sale auction results and objectionschapter11cases.com
- 2Bloomberg Law: Google aims to boost AI with purchase of Spirit Airlines datanews.bloomberglaw.com
- 3iTnews: Google to buy Spirit Airlines business data for US$10 millionitnews.com.au
- 4AI Weekly: micro1 files late $12.5M bid for Spirit Airlines dataaiweekly.co
- 5MIT Technology Review: AI labs buying data from dead startups (Oct 2026)technologyreview.com
- 6Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz: selling company data for AI trainingtechnologylaw.fkks.com
- 7Hilco Global: intellectual property and data advisoryhilcoglobal.com
- 8Grepped: for businessesgrepped.ai
- 9Polyshares: company data licensingpolyshares.com
- 10Mode: data partnership programdata.mode.inc
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