Google wins bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines emails, chats, documents
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Google is acquiring Spirit Airlines' emails, calendar info, chats, documents, spreadsheets and other business data, according to a bankruptcy court filing.
- It will use the data to improve its products and AI models.
Why it matters: Spirit Airlines ceased operations earlier this year after it failed to emerge from its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but attorneys are still handling the disposition of its assets.
Zoom in: Google won a bankruptcy auction for the data, agreeing to pay $10 million for the information.
- The data does not contain any personally identifiable information, according to a court filing by PJT Partners vice president Dylan Friesner, an investment banker for Spirit.
- The data will be "deidentified" — meaning that it won't be associated with individual people and the buyer agrees not to attempt to re-identify the users.
By the numbers: The deal includes about 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, according to a court filing.
- It does not include passenger profiles or their frequent flyer information.
State of play: Google is expected to use the data as fodder for large language model training.
- In addition to interpersonal communications, the data includes marketing materials, HR info, project management documents, financial databases, audits and presentations.
- "We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
- "We will not receive any personal information from this dataset. Any data we receive will be rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt."
What's next: A federal judge needs to approve the deal.
- If it doesn't go through, AI-powered hiring platform Mercor was the next-highest bidder, at $7.5 million.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from Google.
