Who owns a dissolved company's data?

A company’s Slack, email, tickets, documents and code are company property, and dissolution doesn’t hand them to the founders. The dissolved company keeps them for as long as the law lets it wind up, which is three years in Delaware, and whoever still has authority to act for it can license them in that time. Property nobody disposed of goes where the law sends it: in the UK, to the Crown. The software vendors delete on their own clocks either way, so the practical answer is to export and license before you file.

Dissolution doesn’t move the records to the founders

The tools’ terms say the customer owns the data, and the customer is the company, not the person who set the account up. A founder who still has the admin login can export the workspace. Licensing it is the company’s act, and after dissolution it takes someone who can still act for the company. Who can sign for a closed company goes through the cases.

Delaware: the corporation lives on for three years to dispose of its property

Delaware’s corporation law continues a dissolved corporation “for the term of 3 years from such expiration or dissolution”, or longer if the Court of Chancery directs, for the purpose of winding up: “to dispose of and convey their property, to discharge their liabilities and to distribute to their stockholders any remaining assets”. It can’t carry on its business, but it can sell or license what it owns, and its records are property.

If no director is left to act, section 279 lets the Court of Chancery, on the application of a creditor, stockholder, director or anyone with good cause, appoint one or more directors as trustees, or appoint receivers, “to take charge of the corporation’s property” and settle its unfinished business.

So a Delaware startup dissolved in 2025 can still license its records through 2028 if a director acts for it, and later if a trustee is appointed.

The UK: a struck-off company’s property passes to the Crown

Under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006, property a company held when it was dissolved is bona vacantia, ownerless, and passes to the Crown or to the Duchy of Lancaster or Cornwall, subject to the company being restored. The Treasury Solicitor’s Bona Vacantia Division deals with it, and can sell an asset or disclaim it.

Restoration brings the property back. Administrative restoration is open to a former director or member within six years of dissolution when the registrar struck the company off for late or missing filings, on form RT01, and a company with assets needs a waiver letter from the Bona Vacantia Division first. A company that was dissolved voluntarily goes to court instead, also within six years. A restored company “is then regarded as having continued in existence as if it had not been struck off and dissolved”. Until then, nobody at the company can license anything.

In bankruptcy or administration, the estate owns it

Filing for bankruptcy, entering administration or signing an assignment for the benefit of creditors moves control of the company’s assets to the trustee, administrator or assignee, and the records go with everything else. Can a company in administration sell its data covers the court approval a buyer wants to see.

The vendors delete on their own clocks

Ownership on paper doesn’t keep the records alive. Google says a canceled Workspace’s data is deleted and can’t be restored. Microsoft keeps a lapsed tenant’s data for 90 days and deletes it no later than 180 days after cancellation. Slack says a deleted workspace’s messages and files can’t be retrieved. Each records page has the export steps and the clock for that tool, and sell company data after shutdown puts them in order.

The people in the records keep their rights

Dissolution ends the company, not the privacy rights of the staff and customers in its mail and chat. In California, the privacy law has covered employees’ personal information since January 1, 2023, and UK and EU data protection law applies to a dissolved company’s records as it did before. The AI companies listed here remove or replace personal details in what they take; the rights checklist covers what to check before a sample leaves you.

Four listed AI companies take a closed company’s records

micro1 has a program for companies no longer operating (50+ employees at peak, substantial Slack or Teams history, English, ten named countries). Turing buys the operating record of companies that are running, winding down or closed, for up to $1M, from someone with authority to transfer it. Maryah publishes no size or country limit. License My Data takes closed companies with 50+ at peak. The fit check shows which of them fit yours, and SimpleClosure alternatives compares the shutdown services that file the dissolution itself.