# FirmLedge

> FirmLedge runs the sale when a company's records are licensed to AI developers, working with owners, estates and their advisers. The process starts with a one-page records assessment prepared at no charge, with no files first. FirmLedge is an early-stage business based in Chicago, Illinois, founded by Andrew Gallagher.

AI developers now pay to license real companies' de-identified records, email and documents, including those of companies that have closed. FirmLedge works out what survives and who controls it, describes the records to several buyers without naming the company, and shows the owner or estate every proposal before anything is decided. FirmLedge does not buy or resell the records or take a principal position in them.

Andrew Gallagher worked in investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities and in private equity at SNH Capital Partners. FirmLedge is early-stage; that transaction experience comes from Andrew's prior roles, not from FirmLedge's own history.

## Who pays FirmLedge

Where a buyer engages FirmLedge to source records, the buyer pays FirmLedge and the owner or estate pays no FirmLedge fee. FirmLedge is paid by one side only. The source sees all offers FirmLedge receives for the agreed package before deciding, with FirmLedge's compensation and who pays FirmLedge disclosed alongside them. The work, FirmLedge's role and compensation are agreed in writing before engagement. Any extraction, scanning or legal costs are agreed in advance.

## How a sale or license runs

The same four stages for an owner and an estate. Nothing moves without the source's written approval and any court, lender or creditor approval its counsel says applies.

1. Confirm control and systems. A short call or email establishes which systems and years survive, whether the records connect from an order to the work, the invoice and the payment, and who can authorize a license. No files, logins or confidential details are needed.
2. The one-page assessment, then an unnamed profile. FirmLedge prepares a one-page records assessment from the docket, notices and public filings, or from the owner's description for a company outside a court process. It is prepared at no charge, it is not a valuation and not an offer, and it is for the file either way. With the source's permission, FirmLedge then describes the records to several buyers without naming the company: which systems, how many years and rough counts.
3. Proposals side by side. Any proposal comes to the source in the same format: price, package, permitted uses, exclusivity, de-identification method and the buyer's fee to FirmLedge. A buyer may ask for a narrow sample or schema review; the source decides whether to provide one, under NDA and agreed access terms.
4. Decision, de-identification and the written license. The source chooses whether to proceed, which buyer, which records, what uses are allowed and whether any buyer gets exclusivity. Identifying information is removed or replaced under a process the source approves before evaluation, training, product use or any other agreed use. Raw-record access for extraction or de-identification requires a separately approved handling agreement limited to those steps. Any other use requires separate release approval and agreed terms. Removing names does not guarantee anonymity. Distinctive figures can still identify a business or person.

Turnaround: an initial reply within two business days, and the one-page assessment within five business days of a description FirmLedge can work from, or a note on what is missing.

What stays out from the start: personnel, payroll and timekeeping files; biometric time-clock data; bank and card data; government IDs, I-9s and medical notes; privileged legal files; customer-owned patterns and drawings; export-controlled data; records covered by NDAs or vendor terms that bar the use; and anything a court order did not preserve.

Sectors: industrial, manufacturing, food and agricultural, distribution and service businesses; finance and professional firms through their estates or advisers; other categories case by case.

Holding records does not by itself establish the right to license them. This describes FirmLedge's process; it is not legal advice, and the source's own counsel decides what approvals and notices apply.

## The market (public reports, checked October 21, 2026)

- Forbes, April 16, 2026: SimpleClosure, which helps companies wind down, had handled nearly 100 deals for closed companies in the past year, typically paying $10,000 to $100,000 per company. cielo24's 13-year digital footprint brought "hundreds of thousands of dollars."
- Spirit Airlines: the bankruptcy estate auctioned de-identified company data, including corporate email, on August 14, 2026. Google was the successful bidder at $10.0 million. The sale is not approved; the hearing is set for November 6, 2026.
- micro1, October 9, 2026: announced a commitment to spend $1 billion over the next 12 months acquiring and licensing enterprise operational data.

Reported developments since April:

- April 16, 2026. Forbes reported that SimpleClosure, which helps companies wind down, had handled nearly 100 deals for closed companies in the past year, typically paying $10,000 to $100,000 per company, and that Sunset buys closed companies' data at similar prices. (Forbes, April 16, 2026)
- August 14, 2026. Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy estate auctioned de-identified company data; Google was the successful bidder at $10.0 million, with Mercor.io as alternate bidder at $7.5 million. (Stretto research post, October 14, 2026)
- August 27, 2026. Skift reported that the Association of Flight Attendants had objected to the Spirit sale, arguing that de-identified data could still be traced back to individuals. (Skift, August 27, 2026)
- October 5, 2026. The consumer privacy ombudsman's supplemental report in the Spirit case concluded that approval of the sale would be appropriate from a privacy perspective. (Stretto research post, October 14, 2026)
- October 8, 2026. More than 120 members of Congress wrote to Google and Spirit asking for employee-data safeguards before the sale proceeds. (Reuters via The Star, October 9, 2026; TravelPulse, October 10, 2026)
- October 9, 2026. micro1 announced a commitment to spend $1 billion over the next 12 months acquiring and licensing enterprise operational data. (micro1, October 9, 2026)
- October 9, 2026. The Spirit sale hearing, previously set for October 14, was adjourned to November 6, 2026. (Stretto research post, October 14, 2026)

Checked October 22, 2026. Each item is as reported by the publisher named; none is a FirmLedge figure or an offer for any company's records.

A written buyer request FirmLedge holds describes seven-figure budgets for complete, connected, multi-system archives of larger companies. Every figure is conditional on the inventory; a number for a given company comes only from a buyer's written response. FirmLedge does not estimate what a particular company's records are worth before buyers respond in writing.

## For estates, receivers, assignees and their advisers

The estates page describes the process for an estate. It starts with a one-page records assessment FirmLedge prepares from the docket, notices and public filings, at no charge; it is not a valuation and not an offer. A checkbox fit check requests it, with no files, financial figures, logins or customer names. FirmLedge asks an estate for its appointing order, any sale procedures, the lender's position on its lien, the privacy policies in effect and a list of systems, not the records themselves. Approvals depend on the estate type: in bankruptcy, usually a notice to creditors and possibly an order; in a receivership, the appointing order and lender consent where the lien reaches general intangibles; in an assignment for the benefit of creditors, the state's statute; in a liquidating trust, the plan and trust agreement. The estate's counsel decides.

Contact: Andrew Gallagher, andrew@firmledge.com, +1 312 291 1954.

## Pages

- [For estates, receivers and assignees](https://firmledge.com/for-estates/): The one-page records assessment, how a license would run for an estate, approvals by estate type, what stays out, who pays FirmLedge and the fit check.
- [Estates fit check](https://firmledge.com/for-estates/#fit-check): The checkbox form that requests the one-page assessment.
- [For owners of closing, closed or sold companies](https://firmledge.com/for-owners/): Closing, closed and sold companies, operating companies case by case, who pays FirmLedge, de-identification and the owner inquiry.
- [For data buyers](https://firmledge.com/for-data-buyers/): What FirmLedge brings a buyer, what a buyer receives and when, and the separate dataset, task and verified-answer service.
- [How it works](https://firmledge.com/how-it-works/): The four stages, approvals by situation, de-identification, what stays out, what FirmLedge will not do and what it asks a source for.
- [Market](https://firmledge.com/market/): Public reports on what has been paid for company records, what a written buyer request describes, and where a given company sits.
- [The one-page records assessment](https://firmledge.com/assessment/): What the assessment covers, who it is for, the turnaround, and a fictional example for Example Foundry Co.
- [About FirmLedge and Andrew Gallagher](https://firmledge.com/about/): Why FirmLedge exists, the founder's background and the distinction between prior work and FirmLedge's own history.
- [Contact FirmLedge](https://firmledge.com/contact/): Four routes: estates, owners, data buyers and everything else.
- [Terms](https://firmledge.com/terms/): Website terms and the role of separate written agreements.
- [Privacy](https://firmledge.com/privacy/): Handling of website and inquiry information.

## Optional

- [Fictional financial-record example](https://firmledge.com/example/): Illustrative invoices, receipts and accounting records with preparation documentation. This is not real source inventory or a completed data license.
- [Cash Review example](https://firmledge.com/example/cash-review/): A fictional bank-to-ledger reconciliation demonstration.
- [Acquisition Financial Review](https://firmledge.com/financial-review/): Separate financial-review service; purchasing it does not grant data-licensing rights.
- [Full Spread](https://firmledge.com/full-spread/): An earlier owner financial report, available to owners it was offered to.