Google Acquires 100M Emails, 500M Microsoft Teams Chats From Bankrupt Spirit Airlines
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.