Google to buy Spirit Airlines business data for $10 million

By Dietrich Knauth

 

NEW YORK,(Reuters) - Alphabet’s Google is acquiring internal business data from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million, saying it plans to use the data for product development and training its AI models.

 

• The acquired data includes Spirit Airlines’ employee emails, Microsoft Teams messages, spreadsheets, and calendars, as well as marketing, productivity, and operations data.

 

• The data will be de-identified before the sale is complete, containing no customer information or personally identifiable information.

 

• A U.S. bankruptcy judge will consider approving the data sale at a Wednesday court hearing.

 

• Spirit also received a $7.5 million bid from Mercor, an AI data company.

 

• Spirit is selling off assets in bankruptcy after shutting down its business in May due to high debt and high fuel costs.

 

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Aurora Ellis)