Public transaction examples
The following examples, figures, and transaction descriptions were supplied from public filings, court records, established reporting, marketplace materials, and another advisory firm’s published outcomes.
Published payout ranges
These ranges were described as published by an advisory firm, wind-down brokers, and court records. They are not Secure Data ROI estimates.
| Headcount | Published range | Typical close | Usually includes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25–100 | $100K–$500K | $350K | Workspace, email, and support archives from about a decade of operations | Published advisory-firm table |
| 100–500 | $450K–$1.2M | $800K | Adds CRM history, ticketing, and multi-team project tracking | Published advisory-firm table |
| 500–2,000 | $1M–$1.8M | $1.4M | Multi-region workspace plus engineering and data-warehouse exports | Published advisory-firm table |
| 2,000+ | $1.8M–$2M+ | $2M+ | Full enterprise archive with long retention and rich metadata | Published advisory-firm table |
| Large enterprise, at auction | $10M–$12.5M | — | About 100 million emails, 500 million chat records, code, and operating records | Court filings, 2026 |
Highlights: $200K to $2M
The supplied source described these as ordinary operating companies licensing everyday records, with headcount, systems, and years covered where published.
Freight & logistics · Ohio
$850K
Eight years of shipping operations records from a 340-person carrier: workspace documents, team chat, CRM history, and support tickets, described as licensed after anonymization.
Source framing: Published by another advisory firm as a client outcome.
Industrial manufacturing · Michigan
$1.1M
Twelve years of file storage, engineering tickets, documentation, and ERP records from a 760-person manufacturer. The published account described 41 days from scoping call to payment.
Source framing: Published by another advisory firm as a client outcome.
Healthcare administration · Texas
$1.4M
Eleven years of administrative records from a 1,180-person group, with patient-identifying information described as removed before anything left the company’s systems.
Source framing: Published by another advisory firm as a client outcome.
Financial services · New York
$2M
Twelve years of workspace documents, meeting transcripts, team chat, and data-warehouse exports from a 2,400-person firm. The published account called it the firm’s largest transaction to date.
Source framing: Published by another advisory firm as a client outcome.
Business services · 2026
Six figures
A transcription and captioning company that closed after 13 years was reported to have sold its complete chat, email, ticket, and document archive to an AI buyer for “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Source framing: Former chief executive reporting.
Healthcare data · 2025–2026
Seven figures
A specialist provider reported seven figures of net new revenue in under a year from licensing de-identified imaging studies paired with radiology reports and clinical notes through a marketplace.
Source framing: Marketplace-published case study.
Broadcasting · 2025–2026
$1M+ in 6 months
A national broadcaster was reported to have licensed tens of thousands of hours of drama, entertainment, news, and sports footage through an aggregator and crossed $1 million in licensing income within six months, on a revenue-share basis.
Source framing: Aggregator-published case study.
Data marketplace · 2026
$1M+ a year, per partner
A training-data marketplace disclosed that several of its data partners each earn more than $1 million a year licensing proprietary datasets through the platform.
Source framing: Company press release.
Larger deals: $2M to $10M
The upper end of the supplied reporting includes annual licenses, upfront payments, and a court-supervised auction. Each deal’s facts, rights, buyer, and timing were specific to that transaction.
Mid-sized publishers · 2024–2026
$1–5M a year
Trade reporting placed typical annual licensing arrangements for mid-sized publishers at roughly $1 million to $5 million; one AI developer was reported to offer $1 million to $5 million per corpus for a European publisher’s titles.
Source framing: Press Gazette and The Information reporting.
Financial newspaper · 2024
$5–10M a year
Press reporting described a multi-year agreement with an AI developer covering archives and current reporting, in the single-digit millions per year.
Source framing: Press reporting.
Academic publishing · 2024
$10M upfront, plus recurring
A UK-based academic publisher disclosed more than $10 million upfront for initial access to its journals and books, plus recurring payments through 2027, from a large technology company.
Source framing: Publisher parent-company financial reporting.
Aviation · 2026
$10M
Court filings described about 100 million emails, 500 million workplace chats, 30 million lines of code, and revenue, operations, audit, and fraud records as de-identified. A $10 million bid won the auction and a late $12.5 million offer followed, with court approval pending.
Source framing: Court filings, 2026.
These are publicly reported illustrative transactions from the supplied source material. Secure Data ROI did not broker, represent, or receive these outcomes as its own client work. Past transactions do not indicate what a buyer may offer for your records.
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