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AI Data Payout

Updated October 2026

Bought a company? Licensing the data you acquired

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You bought a company, and with it came years of Slack, email, tickets and code you may never open again. AI companies now pay to license a copy of records like these, and they watch deal announcements: eight days after Warmly agreed to be acquired by HubSpot in late June 2026, Mercor emailed Warmly's CEO offering to buy or license its code and task records, according to The Information. Whether Warmly accepted has not been reported.1

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

Who asks

Data buyers already name acquirers as sellers

License My Data names "acquirers left holding legacy systems after a carve-out", and holding groups and portfolios, among the sellers it works with. Hilco lists proprietary enterprise data, codebases and AI training assets as an advisory line covering M&A and corporate carve-outs. SimpleClosure's investor page asks whether it can help with shutdowns that happen after acquisition.2,3,4

Mercor has also pursued shuttered startups' Slack and Jira archives, so a target that is being folded in and switched off looks much like a closed company to a buyer.5

What you hold

The archive that came with the deal

An acquired company usually arrives with years of Slack or Teams, a Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 tenant, a ticket system and a code repository. SimpleClosure says it found Slack in 95% of the workspaces it evaluated, Google Drive in 87% and GitHub in 82%. Mercor lists Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Confluence, Salesforce, GitHub, Drive and Notion among 100+ tools it buys from.6,7

Several buyers we work with take exactly this: messages, codebases, documents and task histories from tools such as Slack, GitHub, Jira and Google Drive. Some take firms in any status, closed included, and count staff at their peak. The quiz asks the target's size and status and introduces you to the buyers that fit.8,9

The archive that came with the deal
FactValue and source
Mercor's approach to Warmly

Eight days after Warmly agreed to be acquired by HubSpot in late June 2026, Mercor emailed Warmly's CEO offering to buy or license its code and task records

Reported by The Information, via AI Weekly. Whether Warmly accepted, and whether HubSpot's terms allowed it, has not been reported.

[1] AI Weekly, reporting The Information ·

Acquirers as data sellers

Names "acquirers left holding legacy systems after a carve-out", and holding groups and portfolios, among the sellers it works with

[2] License My Data · company's own claim ·

Hilco and AI training assets

Lists "Proprietary Enterprise Data, Codebases & AI Training Assets" as an advisory line, covering M&A, restructuring, bankruptcy, Article 9 sales and corporate carve-outs

Hilco also frames the transferability of data as an advisory topic.

[3] Hilco Global, Intangible Assets · company's own claim ·

Before you reply

What to pin down when a data buyer writes

First, what your purchase agreement transferred, and whether the seller kept any rights. Second, what the target promised its own customers and suppliers. Third, whether the data is still needed for transition services. These are questions to talk through with the buyer you're working with, whose team reviews rights before anything is signed, and you are welcome to bring your own advisor; they are in the list below.

Then compare offers on terms, not just price. Some buyers leave ownership with the company and let you review samples before release, and some offer an outright buyout as well as a license. Most buyers charge sellers nothing. Speeds vary, but payment usually arrives around 3-6 weeks after signing, sometimes longer.10,11,12,13,14,15,16

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • At least one has. Mercor emailed Warmly's CEO eight days after Warmly agreed to be acquired by HubSpot.1

  • Several do. Some licensors name acquirers left holding systems after a carve-out as sellers, and some buyers take companies in any status, closed included.2,3,9

  • Mercor asked Warmly for code and task records, and other buyers take messages, codebases, documents and task histories as well.1,8

  • Either, depending on the buyer. Some offer a license or an outright buyout, and with a license the company keeps ownership of its records.15,10

  • Closed startups' archives typically sell for $10K-$100K through SimpleClosure, which has done 150+ such deals.17

  • Offers usually come within a few days to two weeks. Speeds vary for payment, but it's usually around 3-6 weeks, sometimes longer.14,13,18,16

  • 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

  • Do the target's customer agreements, supplier terms or privacy notices limit licensing its records?
  • Does a transition services agreement or earnout tie up the archive for now?
  • Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
  • Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
  • How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?

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?

How this page was made

Figures come from the published sources listed below, and what a buyer says about itself is its own claim. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote. Drafted with AI help from our research, then checked against each source. Updated October 2026.

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. See how we earn and how we rank. This site does not give legal, tax or financial advice.

Sources (18)

  1. 1.AI Weekly, reporting The Information, published 15 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  2. 2.License My Data. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Hilco Global, Intangible Assets. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.SimpleClosure for Investors. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  5. 5.AI Weekly, summarising The Information, published 15 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  6. 6.SimpleClosure, What Your Assets Are Worth, published 3 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.Grepped website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  9. 9.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.beri.net, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  11. 11.Mode company data site. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  12. 12.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Ventra company data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.License My Data. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Cognor Labs manufacturing page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Forbes, published 16 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  18. 18.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.