Disney offers jobs to Character AI staff following asset deal

Entertainment giant Disney has agreed to offer jobs to employees of bankrupt chatbot startup Character AI, TechCrunch Startups and UA NEWS reported. The agreement follows the startup filing for bankruptcy earlier in the week, according to TechCrunch Startups. The majority of employees offered roles at Disney have accepted them, TechCrunch Startups reported. [1][2][6]

The details of the transaction vary across reporting outlets. TechCrunch Startups reported that Disney previously agreed to acquire some assets from Character AI for 20 million dollars. BigGo Finance reported that Disney will pay 180 million dollars over three years for the startup's talent, while TradingView reported on a 60 million dollar deal. UA NEWS reported that Disney agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees. [1][3][5][6]

The transaction is structured as a stalking horse bid, which means another company could submit a higher offer, TechCrunch Startups reported based on a legal filing spotted by Bloomberg. Former Character AI chief executive Karandeep Anand recently joined Disney as its first chief technology officer, TechCrunch Startups reported. Startup Fortune reported that Disney previously threatened to sue the former executive. [1][4]

Character AI was founded in November 2021 by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who both worked on the LaMDA conversational artificial intelligence project. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company built dialogue-driven technology that enables users to create and interact with personalized artificial intelligence characters for storytelling and role-playing. [9]