Updated October 2026
Carve-outs and legacy systems: the data left behind
You are holding the systems a carve-out left behind: a mail tenant nobody logs into, a ticket system kept read-only for the transition, repositories archived after migration. AI companies now pay to license a copy of records like these, and the window closes the day the old systems are switched off. License My Data even names "acquirers left holding legacy systems after a carve-out" among the sellers it works with.1
Who is looking
Advisers and data buyers that name carve-outs
Hilco advises on enterprise data, codebases and AI training assets in M&A, restructuring and corporate carve-outs, and License My Data offers either a licence or an outright buyout. Among the buyers we work with, some take messages, codebases, documents and task histories with read-only access to only the sources you approve, and some count staff at the company's peak, which suits a unit that has already shrunk.2,3,4,5,6
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| What Grepped buys | Messages, codebases, documents, business records and task histories, from Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, GitHub, Jira, Google Drive, SharePoint, Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Xero, Zendesk, Asana and ServiceNow |
The estate
What usually sits in a legacy environment
SimpleClosure reports Slack in 95% of the workspaces it evaluated, Google Drive in 87% and GitHub in 82%. A carved-out business unit tends to hold the same mix plus the systems the parent ran for it. The useful part to a data buyer is the linked history: a ticket with the code change that closed it and the chat where someone explained why.7
Raw volume is not the measure. SimpleClosure says roughly 37% of raw code disappeared once third-party, generated and duplicate code was removed, its own figure. Expect a similar haircut on any estate full of bundled libraries and copies. Duplicated mailboxes and migrated drives shrink the same way, so count unique records, not terabytes, before you compare offers.8
The clock
Transition periods end, and so do subscriptions
Legacy systems are often switched off when a transition services period ends, to stop paying for seats, and that is the moment the archive stops being licensable. Buyers move quickly when asked: offers usually come within a few days to two weeks. Speeds vary, but payment is usually around 3-6 weeks after signing, sometimes longer. Asking before you decommission costs little; rebuilding a deleted tenant from backups, if it can be done at all, costs far more.9,10,11,12
Put the decommission dates on one sheet: each legacy system, who pays for it now, when the transition services agreement ends and who can still sign in as an admin. Whoever holds the admin login on the last day decides what can still be exported, so name that person before the date arrives.
Suppliers matter too. Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz recommends reviewing supplier contracts for what happens on a supplier's sale, shutdown or bankruptcy, and in the Spirit Airlines sale a supplier, Springshot, claimed ownership of data its service generated.13,14
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
SimpleClosure found Slack in 95% of workspaces it evaluated, Google Drive in 87% and GitHub in 82%.7
Probably not. SimpleClosure says roughly 37% of raw code disappeared after removing third-party, generated and duplicate code.8
It has happened: Springshot objected in the Spirit Airlines sale, claiming ownership of data its service generated.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.
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 parent's group licences, or a transition services agreement, restrict what can be licensed from the legacy systems?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
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?