Glossary
Company Wind-Down and Data Licensing Glossary
These are plain-language definitions for the words you meet when a company is closing, being sold, or licensing its operational records. Each entry gives the meaning, why it matters to your decision, and a link to the guide that explains the topic in full. Start with the group that matches the decision in front of you.
Browse by topic
Terms are grouped by the job in front of you: licensing records, closing the company, or handing assets over. Each link jumps to that entry below.
Licensing and data
- Data licensing
- Operational records
- De-identification
- Pseudonymization
- Anonymization
- Personal data
- Exclusive license
- Non-exclusive license
- Perpetual license
- Read-only system check
- NDA
Closing the company
- Wind-down
- Dissolution
- Liquidation
- Assignment for the benefit of creditors
- WARN Act
- Mini-WARN
- Final paycheck
- COBRA
- Records retention
Selling or handing over
All terms
A
- Acqui-hire
An acqui-hire is a deal that hires a company's team, usually with a small asset sale wrapped around the hiring. The buyer wants the people more than the product.
Founders compare an acqui-hire with an asset sale and with a data license when the company is closing. An acqui-hire moves people onto the buyer's payroll. A data license leaves the people, and the ownership of the records, where they are.
- Anonymization
Anonymization means information that does not relate to an identified or identifiable person, or personal data rendered anonymous so that the person is no longer identifiable.
The regulation says its principles do not apply to that anonymous information, including for statistical or research purposes. Data that could still be tied to a person with extra information is not in that category. A licensed copy with personal details removed is not, on that fact alone, anonymous.
- Asset purchase agreement
An asset purchase agreement is the contract for buying named assets of a company. The buyer takes the assets the contract lists, not the company as a whole, unless the contract says otherwise.
Selling named assets is one way to recover value when nobody will buy the company as a going concern. The agreement sets the assets, the price, and what you keep. A data license is a different contract: you keep the records and grant a right to use a copy.
- Assignment for the benefit of creditors
An assignment for the benefit of creditors, or ABC, is a transfer of a company's assets to an assignee who sells them and pays creditors. It is a state process, not a federal bankruptcy case.
A closing company can use an ABC to hand assets to an assignee who sells them and pays creditors. The assignee runs that sale. State steps differ, and that choice sits beside a bankruptcy case when the company is closing.
C
- COBRA
COBRA is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It requires group health plans to offer continuation coverage to qualified beneficiaries who lose health coverage because of qualifying events.
Closing the company can be the event that ends job-based health coverage. The law lets employees and their families keep that coverage for a time after a qualifying event. What must be sent depends on the event. Ask your lawyer what your plan owes people before you announce the closing.
- Consumer privacy ombudsman
A consumer privacy ombudsman is one disinterested person the United States trustee appoints when a bankruptcy sale or lease would transfer personally identifiable information that the debtor's privacy policy restricted. The ombudsman informs the court. The court, not the ombudsman, decides the sale.
The United States trustee makes the appointment not later than seven days before the hearing, and notice of the hearing goes to the ombudsman. The ombudsman may present the privacy policy, the effect on consumers, and alternatives that would mitigate a loss. This statute is about a bankruptcy sale or lease.
Assignment for the benefit of creditors, Liquidation, Personal data
D
- Data licensing
Data licensing is a contract that lets another party use records you still own. You grant a right to use the records. You do not transfer ownership of them.
A closing company can be paid for operational records through a license and still keep ownership. Before you sign, ask who may use the records, what they may do with them, and how long the right lasts.
- Data room
A data room is a controlled set of documents a seller opens so a buyer can review the company. Access is limited, and the documents stay there rather than being emailed around.
In a sale, the data room is where contracts, financials, and corporate records are shown to a bidder under confidentiality. A read-only system check is a different step. It looks at live systems through a link, and it is not a folder of documents for a buyer.
- De-identification
De-identification is a process that removes or masks personal details in a set of records. Describing that process does not mean the records are anonymous.
When you license operational records, personal details are removed before the copy leaves your company. That step is de-identification. It is not a legal finding that no person could be recognized, and it is not the same word as anonymization.
Pseudonymization, Anonymization, Personal data, Operational records
- Dissolution
Dissolution is the legal end of a company's existence, filed with the state that created it. The company stops being an entity once that filing is effective.
Stopping operations does not by itself dissolve the company. Notice to staff, final pay, and a decision about records can still be unfinished when you choose to close. The filing that ends the entity follows the law of the state that formed the company.
E
- Exclusive license
An exclusive license gives one party the sole right to use the records in the way the contract describes. You agree not to grant that same right to anyone else.
Vetrix's term is exclusive. The data partner alone receives the right, and you agree not to license the same records to anyone else. You keep ownership. A sale would transfer assets. A license grants a right to use them.
F
- Final paycheck
A final paycheck is the wages an employer pays a person who has left. Federal law does not require that payment immediately. Some states may require immediate payment.
If the regular payday for the last pay period has passed and the person has not been paid, contact the Wage and Hour Division or the state labor department. Ask your lawyer which state's rule applies before you send people home.
L
- Liquidation
Liquidation is selling a company's assets and using the cash to pay creditors, with anything left going to owners. It turns the company into cash.
You will meet this word if the company is in bankruptcy or an assignment for the benefit of creditors. Creditors are paid from asset sales. A license of operational records is a separate contract, not that sale.
Dissolution, Records retention, Assignment for the benefit of creditors, Consumer privacy ombudsman
M
- Mini-WARN
A mini-WARN law is a state's own layoff-notice rule. It stands beside the federal WARN Act, and the state text decides who it covers.
The federal notice rule is not the only one that can apply. Your state may have its own layoff notice, with its own coverage. Read that statute before you set a date to tell employees.
N
- NDA
An NDA, or nondisclosure agreement, is a contract to keep a conversation confidential. Each side agrees to limit what it repeats about the talks.
You sign the NDA directly with the data partner, company to company, not with Vetrix. The NDA is not the license. You can decline the offer after you sign it, and the NDA still protects both sides.
- Non-exclusive license
A non-exclusive license lets you grant the same right to more than one party. One licensee's right does not block you from licensing the records again.
Vetrix's term is exclusive. The data partner alone receives the right, and you agree not to license the same records to anyone else. A non-exclusive right would be a different contract from that term.
O
- Operational records
Operational records are the files a company creates as it works, such as messages, documents, tickets, and the logs of everyday tools. They show how the work was done.
A data license covers a de-identified copy of these records for AI research. Personal details are removed before anything leaves the company. You approve each system before anything is shared.
P
- Perpetual license
A perpetual license is a right to use records that does not expire on a calendar date. It continues unless the contract itself says the right ends.
The Vetrix license is worldwide and permanent, and only the data partner holds it. That makes it a perpetual license. You see the terms in the agreement before you sign.
- Personal data
Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly.
When you close or license records, the question is whether a person can still be picked out of what you hand over. If they can, the information is personal data. Holding those details back is part of deciding what a license may include. Ask your lawyer where that line falls for your systems.
Anonymization, Pseudonymization, De-identification, Consumer privacy ombudsman
- Pseudonymization
Pseudonymization is the processing of personal data so the data can no longer be attributed to a specific person without additional information. That information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organizational measures.
Data that has gone through this process, and that could still be tied to a person with extra information, remains information on an identifiable person. It stays personal data. Taking details off a licensed copy is a process step. That step alone is not a finding that the copy is anonymous.
R
- Read-only system check
A read-only system check looks at your systems through a secure link. Nothing is copied or moved, and you can disconnect the link at any time.
The check comes after the fit decision. You connect the systems for the check, and an offer follows what the check found. Disconnecting the link ends the check, and nothing has been transferred.
- Records retention
Records retention means keeping the documents that support an item of income, deduction, or credit on a tax return until the period of limitations for that return runs out.
That period is the time in which you can amend a return or the IRS can assess more tax. How long it lasts depends on the return and the item. When the tax reason has ended, check whether an insurer or a creditor needs the file longer. Closing the company does not end that duty.
W
- WARN Act
The WARN Act is the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. It calls for advance notice in qualified plant closings and mass layoffs.
It matters when you close a site or let a group of people go. Coverage depends on the employer and on the layoff. Read the closing guide for how the federal notice rule fits, and ask your lawyer before you set a last day.
- Wind-down
A wind-down is an orderly closing of a company: paying what is owed, ending operations, and dissolving the legal entity when the work is done.
You meet this word when the company is shutting down and records, staff, and contracts still need a decision. Licensing operational records can sit inside that work. Dissolving the entity is a later filing, not the same step.
How to use these definitions
A definition answers what the word means. The linked page answers what you do with it: the closing sequence, the license, or the sale. Read the definition when the word is new. Follow the link when you need the steps, the limits, or the sources behind them.
The consumer privacy ombudsman has a longer note. The Bankruptcy Code sets out who appoints one, the timing before the hearing, and what that person may present to the court.
How to wind down a company is the closing sequence, from staff and records through the filing that ends the entity.
How to sell company data to AI companies is the licensing overview: what can be shared, what stays behind, and how an offer is made.
How to sell a failed startup covers value when a buyer for the whole company does not appear, including a sale of named assets.
When two entries use related words, read both before you decide. De-identification, pseudonymization, and anonymization are not the same promise. Dissolution, liquidation, and an assignment for the benefit of creditors are not the same ending.
Use those overviews when a definition is too short for the decision in front of you. To send someone a single word, share the link to its entry.
Related
- Guides
How-tos and lists for closing a company, selling one, or licensing its records.
- News and analysis
Dated explainers of company data sales to AI, newest first, tied to filings and company statements.
- Winding down
Order of operations to wind down a company, from approval through taxes and dissolution.
- How to sell company data
How to sell or license company data to AI companies, and which route fits.
- Selling a company
How to sell a failed startup, and the options when a company cannot be sold as a whole.
- Compare
Exit options compared: sell, broker, shut down, or license records.
- Industries
What operating records look like by sector, and what is left out.
Questions about these terms
What is in the company wind-down and data licensing glossary?
Twenty-four short definitions cover the licensing, closing, and sale words you meet when a company closes or licenses its records. Each entry says what the word means, why it matters to your decision, and which guide explains the topic in full. The terms are grouped by the decision in front of you, then listed again from A to Z.
Which glossary term has a longer note?
The consumer privacy ombudsman. The Bankruptcy Code sets out who appoints one, the seven-day timing before the sale hearing, and what that person may tell the court, which is more than a short entry can hold. Read the note if a bankruptcy sale could include customer data. Every other term is a short entry with a link to the guide that explains the topic.
Does a glossary definition count as legal advice?
No. An entry names the statute or the official guide to read. It does not tell you what to file, what notice to send, or what to sign. Ask your lawyer before you dissolve a company, set a last day for employees, or license records. The same limit applies to the longer note on a consumer privacy ombudsman. General information, not legal advice.
Which terms matter most when a company is closing?
Start with wind-down, dissolution, and liquidation, which are three different steps. Add the WARN Act and any state mini-WARN law if you are letting a group of people go, plus final paycheck and COBRA for what staff are owed. Records retention decides which files you must keep after the company stops operating. Each entry links to the guide with the steps.
Sources
- EUR-Lex. Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 4. Checked 2026-11-04
- EUR-Lex. Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Recital 26. Checked 2026-11-04
- U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Act Compliance Assistance. Checked 2026-11-04
- U.S. Department of Labor. Last Paycheck. Checked 2026-11-04
- U.S. Department of Labor. An Employer's Guide to Group Health Continuation Coverage Under COBRA. Checked 2026-11-04
- Internal Revenue Service. How long should I keep records?. Checked 2026-11-04
- U.S. Government Publishing Office. 11 U.S.C. § 332, Consumer privacy ombudsman. Checked 2026-11-04
- U.S. Government Publishing Office. 11 U.S.C. § 363, Use, sale, or lease of property. Checked 2026-11-04