When the seller has shareholders
Can a public company sell its data? Insider and disclosure rules
Updated
A listed company's operating record can carry information that would move its share price, and the rules on selective disclosure apply to a data licence as much as to a conversation with an analyst.
Ask about my company's record 4 of the 8 vendors we read leave title to the data with the customer. Tell us which systems hold yours and what stage the company is at, and a person will reply about your own case.
Selective disclosure
Regulation FD, 17 CFR 243.100, says an issuer that discloses material nonpublic information to certain people must make it public, simultaneously when the disclosure is intentional and promptly when it is not. Its definitions put the outer limit of promptly at 24 hours or the next day's trading on the New York Stock Exchange, whichever is later.
Source: Enterprise data sale rules
Inside information in the UK
The UK Market Abuse Regulation defines inside information as precise, not public and likely to have a significant effect on prices if it were, and Article 10 makes disclosing it unlawful unless it is made in the normal exercise of an employment, a profession or duties.
Source: Enterprise data sale rules
Competitors and foreign buyers
Records that reveal prices or volumes to a rival raise the Sherman Act and the Competition Act 1998's Chapter I prohibition, and bulk personal data headed to a country of concern meets the US Data Security Program. These are reasons a large company's licence is usually scoped, aggregated or delayed rather than a reason not to license.
Elsewhere on this site
What happens to the record when the whole company changes hands is on selling a company to private equity.