After the company is gone
Who owns the assets of a dissolved company, files included?
Updated
A company that has been struck off still has an archive, but in the UK it no longer owns it. Whether the files can be sold depends on what happened to the company and when.
Ask about my company archive Most platforms we read leave the files with you, but the ownership of each document and the company's own status decide what can be sold. Tell us what you hold and we will write back.
Bona vacantia: the Crown takes what was left
When a UK company is dissolved, all property and rights it held immediately before dissolution are deemed bona vacantia and belong to the Crown, or to the Duchy of Lancaster or the Duke of Cornwall. The Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia Division deals with the assets of dissolved companies.
Source: Companies Act 2006, s1012
Restoring the company first
An application can be made to court to restore a company to the register, and a restored company is deemed to have continued in existence as if it had not been dissolved. That is the step that puts the archive back in the company's hands before any licence is signed.
Source: Who owns a company archive, and where it goes at closure
Delaware and a US bankruptcy
A dissolved Delaware corporation continues as a body corporate for three years to settle its business and dispose of its property. In a US bankruptcy, filing the case gathers all the debtor's legal or equitable interests in property into the bankruptcy estate, for the trustee to deal with.
Source: Delaware Code title 8, subchapter X
Before any sale
Whether each document was the company's to begin with is on does a company own its employees' documents.