When a business closes or is sold, its data is often treated as clutter: servers wiped, subscriptions cancelled, inboxes archived and forgotten. That's increasingly a mistake.
Records are now an asset class
The 2026 Spirit Airlines bankruptcy made this concrete: its de-identified internal data sold at auction for $10 million, with an AI data company as the backup bidder (Bloomberg Law). Reports also describe AI data firms competing for the business data of bankrupt and acquired companies (LongPort).
If you're winding down
- Don't cancel CRM, accounting, or helpdesk subscriptions until you've exported full history.
- Keep exports complete, including notes, attachments, and activity logs, not just summary reports.
- Check whether customer contracts limit post-closing use of their information.
- Get a valuation before the data is destroyed.
If you're being acquired
Raise the data early in negotiations. Decide whether historical records go to the buyer, stay with the sellers, or can be licensed separately, and get it in the purchase agreement.
Planning a transition? Talk to us before anything gets deleted.