Refuse a 48-hour deadline and collect several quotes, because buyers price on different theses
Business Insider (13 Oct 2026) reports six-figure offers to small businesses that expire in 48 hours, and a broker describes buyers saying 'I'm offering you double market. I need an answer by Friday.' A buyer, Surge AI's Nick Heiner, told MIT Technology Review the same day that buyers quote wildly different numbers because each values an archive on its own research thesis of how many useful tasks it yields; SimpleClosure's Miskell sale shows code and workspace data even close at different times and prices.
Dated 13 Oct 2026Source checked 15 Oct 2026Quote found on its page again 17 Oct 2026Basis: indicative
In the source's own words
“"The offers being made look almost identical to those early oil offers," he said from his home base in Dallas. "They'll say, 'I'm offering you double market. I need an answer by Friday.'"”
Where it was read
Also read from the same source
- Offers to small operating businesses for their internal records (email, Slack, documents), from unnamed AI-data buyers and brokers
- Keep the communications systems in the package, offer exclusivity, and lead with white-collar headcount
- Show clear title to the records, because buyers have been offered stolen archives
- A closed crypto startup's code base (Keelan Miskell's company, about two and a half years of work), sold through SimpleClosure's Asset Hub
- The same closed crypto startup's workspace data (Google, Notion, Figma and Slack), sale through SimpleClosure pending
Figures it counts in
It is shown on its own, not counted into a figure.
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