The U.S. bankruptcy court has delayed a hearing on Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google‘s proposed $10 million purchase of Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc.‘s (OTC:FLYYQ) internal business data.
Initially slated for Wednesday, the hearing has now been rescheduled for September 9.
The court’s decision was influenced by objections raised by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) against the sale of data from the bankrupt Spirit Airlines to Google.
The AFA, representing Spirit’s cabin crew, voiced concerns about the potential reconstruction of individual or small-group data, given the sale agreement’s stipulation to maintain links across datasets. The union said the dataset could contain sensitive employee information, including employment and payroll records, emails and internal communications.
The AFA criticized the proposal as "outrageous," warning that it could expose sensitive employee data, including payroll records, emails, SharePoint files and Microsoft Teams information.
“We will fight this every way possible,” the union said.
Google and Spirit Airlines did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.
Google’s Spirit Data Deal Awaits Approval
Google had agreed to purchase internal business data from the bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million to enhance its product development and artificial intelligence model training. The deal involves the transfer of de-identified records, which Spirit insists do not contain any customer or personally identifiable information.
A Google spokesperson had stated, “We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can help improve our products and AI models.”
Notably, the sale has been announced but is still awaiting approval, and the data has not yet been transferred to Google.
The deal was announced after Spirit Airlines ceased operations in May following its creditors’ rejection of a U.S. government rescue plan. The airline’s collapse came after years of financial distress, with soaring jet-fuel costs during the Iran war adding to the pressure.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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