Updated October 2026
ABC or Chapter 7: where data sales have actually happened
If you are choosing between an assignment for the benefit of creditors and Chapter 7, you are probably weighing cost, speed and control. If the company holds years of email, Slack and code, one more column belongs in that table: where have data sales actually taken place? We counted the reported cases by process. The tally is lopsided, and it is not the answer to which route to take.1,2,3
Chapter 11: two AI-related cases
The court cases with AI bidders are both reorganizations
Spirit Airlines is the one reported sale of an internal-communications archive to AI bidders, in Chapter 11. Google is the successful bidder at $10.0M and Mercor the alternate at $7.5M, pending a hearing on 2026-11-06.1,4
Character.AI, also a Chapter 11 debtor, is selling technology rather than an archive. Disney's $20M stalking horse bid buys a non-exclusive license to code and patents, and excludes user data.5
Chapter 11: consumer data
Three older sales of customer records, kept as context
These are the large data sales most people remember, and none involved internal email or chat. TTAM Research Institute paid $305M for substantially all of 23andMe's assets. General Wireless paid $26M for RadioShack's IP package, whose data originally included 67M+ physical addresses and 8.5M email addresses. Overstock won Bed Bath & Beyond's IP and digital assets for $21.5M.6,7,8
Each was consumer data sold with a brand, and in 23andMe and RadioShack the states pushed back hard on what could transfer. Together they show that Chapter 11 can move data at scale; they are not price guides for a company's own communications.9,10,11
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| 23andMe sale (consumer data) | TTAM Research Institute bought substantially all of 23andMe's assets for $305M, outbidding Regeneron's $256M; Judge Brian C. Walsh approved the sale in 2025 |
| RadioShack customer data (2015) | General Wireless paid $26M for RadioShack's IP package; the data originally offered included 67M+ physical addresses and 8.5M email addresses |
| Bed Bath & Beyond digital assets (2023) | Overstock won Bed Bath & Beyond's IP and digital assets, including internet properties and business data, for $21.5M |
ABC and Chapter 7
One consumer sale in an ABC, none found in Chapter 7
ABC: in Zulily's assignment, which began in December 2023, Beyond paid $4.5M plus related costs for the brand, domains and a customer database. We found no reported ABC that sold internal communications to an AI buyer.2,12
Chapter 7: we found no reported case of a trustee selling an email, Slack or document archive to an AI buyer. The US Courts guide frames the trustee's task in an asset case as liquidating nonexempt assets for unsecured creditors. The public record of such sales is simply empty so far.13
No court at all
Most of the volume is in voluntary wind-downs
By count, the most deals we can find happened with no court or assignee involved. SimpleClosure reports 150+ data deals for wound-down startups, typically $10K-$100K each, and MIT Technology Review reports that 47% of its deals now include code or data. Cielo24, for one, sold 13 years of Slack, Jira and email for what was reported as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Buyers we work with take closed companies too: Pewter says it takes US firms that are winding down or closed if they had 20+ full-time staff and 3+ years of records.3,14,15,16
Our tally, then: Chapter 11 holds the two AI-related court cases and the three consumer-data sales above; ABCs hold one consumer-data sale; Chapter 7 holds none that we could find; and voluntary wind-downs hold the 150+ deals reported by a single broker. That count describes the past and says nothing about which route suits a given company. Whichever route you take, the match quiz shows which buyers take the archive.3,12
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Zulily's did, but it was a customer database sold with the brand: Beyond paid $4.5M plus related costs.12
We found no reported case. The trustee's role, per the US Courts guide, is to liquidate nonexempt assets for unsecured creditors in an asset case.13
It reports 150+, typically $10K-$100K each.3
47%, according to MIT Technology Review.14
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- If we pick an ABC, does the assignee or the board decide whether the archive is licensed?
- Would a Chapter 7 trustee need a court order to license the archive, and how long does that usually add?
- Which proceeding fits: an ABC, Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or a dissolution?
- What are the trustee's, assignee's, receiver's or board's duties, and who receives the proceeds?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?