pyhton to assign shapefiles to groups

Hi there ,

i am a novice with python and Arc , but i was interested to know , how feasible , easy the task i wanted to do was

i am making a map/database of Companies bought and sold properties by year

I have copied the tree strucuture i would like below.

Companies (Group layer)
Company_A (Group Layer)

Sold Properties (Group Layer)

Sold_Propertiets_Company_A_1998.shp
Sold_Propertiets_Company_A_2005.shp
Purchased Properties (Group Layer)

Purchased _Company_A_1998.shp
Purchased _Company_A_2004.shp
Purchased _Company_A_2008.shp
Purchased _Company_A_2010.shp

Company_B (Group Layer)

Sold Properties (Group Layer)

Sold_Propertiets_Company_B_2004.shp
Sold_Propertiets_Company_B_2008.shp
Purchased Properties (Group Layer)

Purchased _Company_B_2001.shp
Purchased _Company_B_2005.shp
Purchased _Company_B_2008.shp
Purchased _Company_B_2011.shp

Company_C (Group Layer)

Sold Properties (Group Layer)

Sold_Propertiets_Company_C_2004.shp
Sold_Propertiets_Company_C_2008.shp
Purchased Properties (Group Layer)

Purchased _Company_C_2001.shp
Purchased _Company_C_2005.shp
Purchased _Company_C_2008.shp
Purchased _Company_C_2011.shp



At the moment i have a hundreds of shapefiles which contain properties by company , which have been bought or sold by years

Example names would be

Thompson_Properties_Bought_1998
Thompson_Properties_Sold_1998

I was wondering if its possible for the name to be used to auto assign it to a group , using a pthyon Script or a tool and how complex diffuclt this would be. If anyone has any directions on how to get started with something like this
Thank for your time