Sell company data after shutdown: what to keep, who buys

AI companies license a company’s working record (Slack or Teams channels, email, support tickets, wikis, documents and databases) to train models on how real work gets done, and the buyers named here remove or replace personal details in what they take. What you can sell is what survives the shutdown, so export everything before anyone cancels a subscription.

micro1 and Maryah take records from closed companies

micro1 has a partnership for companies that are no longer operating, the Defunct Company Data Partnership. It asks for 50+ employees at peak, substantial Slack or Microsoft Teams history, data in English, and a company based in the US, the UK, Canada, India, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany or France. It is open to all industries.

Maryah publishes no size or country limit. It says “fit depends on the data, not just company size”, so it is the one to try if your company was smaller.

Scale and Mode work inside a company’s live systems: Scale de-identifies records there before extraction, and Mode exports with your team signed in. Both need the tools kept running, and Mode hasn’t said whether a closed company qualifies.

Keep the tools running until a buyer has seen a sample

A company that has deleted its workspace has nothing left to show a buyer. An export on a drive preserves the record, and a live workspace keeps more buyers open, because Scale and Mode work from it.

Slack deletes old history on the free plan

Slack’s retention page says paid plans keep messages and files for the lifetime of the workspace by default. On the free plan, owners choose 90 days or one year, and older data is removed on a rolling basis. Downgrading to save money during a wind-down trims the history buyers want.

Deleting a channel permanently removes its messages, whatever the retention settings. Deleting a workspace is permanent too.

Exports depend on the plan. Public channel messages and file links can be exported on all plans. Private channels and direct messages need Business+ or Enterprise, and a Workspace Owner must apply for that export. If most of the team’s talk happened in private channels, apply before the plan lapses.

Google Workspace keeps a deleted user for 20 days

Google’s admin help says a deleted user can be restored for up to 20 days, and after that the data is gone. Deleting staff accounts during offboarding starts that clock on each mailbox and Drive.

Google’s Data Export tool copies the organization’s data to Cloud Storage. It needs a super admin account at least 30 days old with 2-Step Verification on, and an active Workspace subscription for Gmail and Drive. The export is ready no earlier than 48 hours after it starts, typically takes 72 hours and can take up to 14 days. In Google’s default bucket the files are deleted 60 days after the export starts, so download them before then.

Jira needs a full site backup with attachments

Atlassian’s Jira Cloud backup is a zipped package of XML database files with separate folders for attachments. Atlassian recommends staying within 25 GB of data and 50 to 100 GB of attachments, and backups with attachments need 48 hours between them. Since January 22, 2026, Jira restores only backups 30 days old or less, so treat yours as an archive for a buyer to read.

For a support desk, take the full export with comments and attachments before the last seat is canceled.

A buyer needs someone who can sign for the company

A buyer licenses from the company, so someone with authority has to sign: a director, or in a formal process the liquidator, trustee or administrator. A dissolved company with nobody left to sign has a much harder path. If the company is in administration or bankruptcy, read whether its data can be sold and check with a lawyer.

Keep the paid plans, the exports and one person who can sign

• The paid Slack plan, until a buyer has sampled the history. Apply for the private-channel export now.
• Google Workspace accounts, undeleted. Start the Data Export before the subscription ends and download within 60 days.
• A full Jira and support-desk backup with attachments.
• Databases, wikis and design docs as full dumps.
• Admin access for one named person with authority to sign.
• A short inventory: tools, years of history, headcount at peak, and where each export sits.