Spirit Airlines’ Data Sale: Finding Value in Unconventional Bankruptcy Assets

When a company enters bankruptcy, attention typically focuses on familiar assets: real estate, equipment, inventory, intellectual property and going-concern value. Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy offers a reminder that value may also be hiding in less conventional places.

Google recently agreed to pay $10 million for a massive collection of Spirit’s business data, including emails, Teams messages, operational records, pricing and transaction data and software code. Google reportedly intends to use the information to improve its products and artificial intelligence models.

The transaction remains subject to bankruptcy court approval. Spirit’s auction filing and proposed transaction documents are available here.

The proposed sale illustrates both the opportunity presented by unconventional assets and the problems that can accompany attempts to monetize them.

Data Can Be an Asset

Spirit is not the first bankruptcy in which data has generated meaningful value.

In RadioShack’s 2015 bankruptcy, the bankruptcy court approved a $26.2 million sale of its brand and customer data to General Wireless. The transaction generated substantial privacy concerns and required protocols governing customer information, including information involving AT&T and Verizon customers. The RadioShack sale order and related proceedings are discussed here.

Borders presented similar issues. Its bankruptcy estate possessed customer information concerning millions of customers, including email addresses and purchasing histories. The bankruptcy court ultimately approved the sale of intellectual property assets to Barnes & Noble subject to protections concerning customer information. The Borders sale order is available here.

More recently, 23andMe demonstrated just how important information can become to enterprise value. In 2025, the bankruptcy court approved the $305 million sale of substantially all of 23andMe’s assets to TTAM Research Institute, including its Personal Genome Service and Research Services businesses. The company’s enormous collection of genetic and customer information was integral to those businesses and their value.

That value, however, came with significant complications. Numerous states objected to the proposed transfer of customer data, a consumer privacy ombudsman was appointed, and the purchaser agreed to extensive privacy protections. Among other things, customers retained rights concerning deletion of their accounts and data, while the purchaser agreed to restrictions governing its future treatment of customer information. The bankruptcy court ultimately approved the transaction subject to those protections. The 23andMe sale order is available here.

Value Does Not Necessarily Mean Salability

The problem is that possession of information does not necessarily mean that a bankruptcy estate has an unrestricted right to sell it.

Toysmart learned that lesson more than 25 years ago. The online retailer sought to sell customer information despite having promised customers that their information would not be shared with third parties.

The resulting dispute with the Federal Trade Commission produced significant restrictions. Customer information could not be sold as a standalone asset and could only be transferred with the company’s goodwill to a qualified buyer that agreed to honor Toysmart’s existing privacy commitments. The Toysmart bankruptcy stipulation and order is available here.

Congress subsequently addressed consumer information in sections 332 and 363(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code, including through the appointment of a consumer privacy ombudsman in appropriate cases.

Spirit presents a somewhat different problem. The proposed sale reportedly excludes personally identifiable customer information. Instead, objections have focused on employee information embedded in years of emails, workplace communications and operational records. Even supposedly deidentified information can raise concerns about whether individuals may be identified when large datasets are combined.

Look Beyond the Balance Sheet

The larger lesson extends beyond data.

Bankruptcy professionals looking to maximize recoveries should consider assets that may never have appeared separately on a debtor’s balance sheet: datasets, domain names, proprietary software, customer relationships, licenses, causes of action, contractual rights and other accumulated information or digital property.

Artificial intelligence may make some of these assets considerably more valuable than they were only a few years ago.

But identifying value is only the first step. Before marketing an unconventional asset, the estate must determine what it actually owns, whether contractual or statutory restrictions limit transfer, whether third parties have rights in the asset, and whether the purchaser can use it for the purpose that gives it value.

Spirit’s proposed data sale demonstrates the opportunity. The objections to that sale demonstrate the corresponding challenge.

Sometimes the most valuable remaining asset of a failed business may be something nobody previously thought to sell.