Updated October 2026
Company data in an assignment for the benefit of creditors
An assignment for the benefit of creditors, usually shortened to ABC, is a wind-down run by an assignee rather than inside a bankruptcy court. The best-known recent retail ABC is Zulily's. Its sale included a customer database, but no reported ABC has yet sold a company's internal communications to an AI buyer, so assignees may be leaving an asset unpriced.1,2
A worked example
How Zulily's assignment was set up
Zulily entered its ABC in December 2023. Douglas Wilson Companies ran the process through a special purpose entity called Zulily ABC and planned to liquidate the assets over 12 to 18 months. That runway matters for data: a buyer cannot sample an archive that was shut off in month one.1
The brand went to Beyond, which paid $4.5M plus related costs for Zulily's IP and brand assets: the website and domains, trademarks, a customer database, social media accounts and website software.2
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Zulily's assignment for the benefit of creditors | Zulily entered an assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC) in December 2023; Douglas Wilson Companies ran the wind-down through a special purpose entity, Zulily ABC, liquidating assets over 12 to 18 months |
| Zulily brand and customer database sale | Beyond paid $4.5M plus related costs for Zulily's IP and brand assets: website and domains, trademarks, a customer database, social media accounts and website software |
Keep them apart
A customer database is not an email archive
The Zulily price covered consumer records sold with a brand. It is context for how an assignee packages digital assets, not a comparable for a company's Slack, email or shared drives. The AI data buyers in this directory want internal records, not shopper lists, and SimpleClosure, for one, says sensitive employee and health records are excluded while code, Slack, email and docs are in scope.2,3
Who does the work
Assignees rarely list data as a service yet
Sherwood Partners lists corporate restructuring, debtor and creditor representation, managed liquidations, and state and federal receivers on its services page. No data offering appears there.4
Data brokers are reaching toward the same fiduciaries. License My Data says it serves trustees, administrators, liquidators and wind-down officers, plus their counsel. Its list does not use the word assignee, so whether it takes ABC estates is a question to put to License My Data directly.5
Among the larger liquidation houses, Hilco Global now lists "Proprietary Enterprise Data, Codebases & AI Training Assets" as an advisory line for fiduciaries and lenders in restructuring, bankruptcy, Article 9 and other special situations. An assignee without in-house data experience has at least one firm that says it does this work.6
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Sherwood Partners' services | Lists corporate restructuring, debtor and creditor representation, managed liquidations, and state and federal receivers; no data offering is listed |
| Who License My Data serves | Trustees, administrators, liquidators, wind-down officers and their counsel, founders closing a company, and acquirers holding legacy systems after a carve-out |
Deal shape
License, not sell, is the broker's pitch
License My Data says that, for a closed company, the estate keeps ownership of the underlying data, a non-exclusive licence is "usually the better deal", and a buyout covers only the prepared dataset. That is a broker's own view of its product. Whether it fits a particular assignment is for the assignee and counsel.7
This page deliberately says nothing state by state: how any state's ABC process treats a data license is a question for the licensing company and the assignee's counsel.
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Zulily's assignment for the benefit of creditors began in December 2023, run by Douglas Wilson Companies through a special purpose entity named Zulily ABC.1
The IP and brand assets, including the website and domains, trademarks, a customer database, social accounts and website software, for $4.5M plus related costs.2
The wind-down was planned to liquidate assets over 12 to 18 months.1
We found no reported case. Zulily's sale, the most visible recent ABC, was a brand and customer database deal.2
It says a non-exclusive licence is usually the better deal, and that a buyout covers only the prepared dataset.7
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Legal questions go to the licensing company
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.
Questions for this kind of business
- Does the assignment agreement pass the company's data and accounts to the assignee, or does anything stay with the company?
- Would the state ABC statute that governs this assignment require notice to creditors before a data license?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- What are the trustee's, assignee's, receiver's or board's duties, and who receives the proceeds?
- Which proceeding fits: an ABC, Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or a dissolution?
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?