Disney has agreed to make job offers to at least 60 employees of Character.AI, the majority of the chatbot startup's workforce, according to a legal filing spotted by Bloomberg. The offers follow Character.AI's bankruptcy filing earlier this week. Disney had already agreed to acquire some of the company's assets for $20 million, and former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand recently became Disney's first CTO.
The offers carry an estimated $60 million in annual compensation, and the filing says the "vast majority" of employees who received them accepted. The deal is a stalking horse bid, so another company could still come in with a higher offer.
The filing says that despite a "large and engaged user base," Character.AI was hurt by high costs and potential litigation and regulatory liabilities. It faces a lawsuit from the mother of a 14-year-old who died by suicide after becoming obsessed with one of its chatbots, as well as government investigations into child safety.