Spirit Airlines sold proprietary datasets, including 7.5 billion passenger records, to Google for $10 million during liquidation.
Google purchased Spirit Airlines’ trade-secret dataset for $10 million during the airline’s bankruptcy auction, a fraction of its estimated value. The sale included 100 million internal emails, 500 million Teams messages, and 7.5 billion de-identified passenger records, among other assets.
Court filings reveal the dataset also contained 7.2 billion competitor pricing observations and 30 million lines of code, representing decades of operational intelligence. Analysts suggest the assets were worth at least 10 times the sale price, highlighting a failure to inventory or value them before liquidation.
The transaction underscores risks for companies neglecting to assess and protect proprietary data, particularly during financial distress. Only two bidders participated in the auction, limiting competition for the assets.