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How much is company Data worth?

Spursman

Neil Sullivan
I was talking to a friend who i used to work with recently. He used to sell a service to businesses. He worked for a large company who had lots of customers. He had a list of who they were and how much they paid annually. There was 5m worth of business on the excel spreadsheet.

I recently met up with him and he still has the data after he left and is trying to sell it to an independent competitor. He is asking me how much he should sell it for and if someone would actually buy it. He said he would give me a cut if i sold it for him as he may be recognised as he did that job for a while.

What are my risks and how much do you think the data is worth?
 
I was talking to a friend who i used to work with recently. He used to sell a service to businesses. He worked for a large company who had lots of customers. He had a list of who they were and how much they paid annually. There was 5m worth of business on the excel spreadsheet.

I recently met up with him and he still has the data after he left and is trying to sell it to an independent competitor. He is asking me how much he should sell it for and if someone would actually buy it. He said he would give me a cut if i sold it for him as he may be recognised as he did that job for a while.

What are my risks and how much do you think the data is worth?

I'd tread very carefully. It sounds like what he is trying to sell would be confidential information, confidential both to his former employer as a book of business, and confidential between his former employer and each customer. I would imagine he would have had a clause in his contract around confidentiality that would survive termination of his employment. In fact, it could also be deemed as theft of company information. By agreeing to sell it on, you could find yourself implicated. The fact that you ask about risks, and that your friend knows he can't sell it himself, would imply a knowledge that all is not above board.
Also, I would expect any company agreeing to buy it (and nowadays any responsible company would be wary of buying something like this in the first place) to expect some kind of warranty or indemnity that you have the right to sell them the information (and the right to licence them to use the information). Meaning in the event of any legal action by your friend's former employer, the buying company could claim any damages they have to pay back from you.

Legalities of it all aside, whilst competitive intelligence is always useful, most companies will have a good sense of who their competitors are, who their competitors' customers are, and, without knowing the finer details of each customer contract, will have an idea of their competitors' price points etc. Probably of higher value is knowing when those contracts are up for renewal.

But for me, the legalities and risks would over ride anything else.
 
If he's asking you to sell it for him, then I'm guessing it's dodgy ground. If you only stand to get a cut from the proceeds, you'd be the one in line for any aggro if it goes tits up, as you'd be the one who sold it. I dunno if I'd want to take any risks like that unless it was for a life changing amount of money.

Sorry that's not much help, I know!
 
If he's asking you to sell it for him, then I'm guessing it's dodgy ground. If you only stand to get a cut from the proceeds, you'd be the one in line for any aggro if it goes tits up, as you'd be the one who sold it. I dunno if I'd want to take any risks like that unless it was for a life changing amount of money.

Sorry that's not much help, I know!
Aka, you need to find someone to sell it for you!
 
I'd tread very carefully.

Absolutely this. It's impossible to believe that a multi-million pound company (ie your associate's ex-employer) wouldn't throw the kitchen sink at this, legally, if they got the slightest wind of it. I personally wouldn't touch it.
 
Also, most professions are small worlds, you'd potentially be offering it to someone who's mates with the other company.
 
Indeed, do not get involved!

Sounds like your friend could get a job at this new place and use his inherent knowledge of the business to help, but do not get involved in anything like this
 
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