Asset sale

An asset sale transfers the individual assets of a business, such as the code, domains, customer records, content and accounts, while the seller keeps the legal entity that owned them.

Why most deals at $50k–$150k are asset sales

The entity at this size is usually a single-member LLC or a small limited company holding little beyond the product itself. Acquiring the company would mean acquiring its tax filings, its bank history and anything that happened before the buyer arrived, which is a lot of diligence to buy for no benefit. Buying the assets alone keeps the check narrow and the transfer clean. The seller keeps the shell and winds it down or carries on with it.

Where it bites

Some things simply do not move in an asset structure. Payment processor accounts are the common one: customer payment methods usually migrate through the processor's own transfer process rather than travelling with the account. Contracts may need the counterparty's consent before they can be assigned. App store accounts, business accounts with two-factor codes sitting on the seller's phone, and anything registered to a personal email all need working out in advance rather than on completion day.

A worked example

A $120,000 asset transfer covers the repository, two domains, the brand, 480 paying subscribers, a 9,000-address mailing list, the documentation and the hosting configuration. The seller's company keeps its bank account, its filing history and its past liabilities. Funds go into escrow in full, the assets move over three working days, and a 30-day handover covers migrating subscribers onto the buyer's processor with no interruption to billing.

Why it matters

The structure decides what the buyer inherits and what the seller is left carrying. An asset sale gives the buyer a defined list to check and the seller a clean line under everything that came before.

Related: share-sale, asset-purchase-agreement, stack-transfer