Disney’s newest tech hires come with a hefty price tag. Disney expects to pay 66 workers from the bankrupt AI chatbot startup Character.ai a combined estimated $60 million a year, according to a court filing Tuesday in the bankruptcy case of Character Technologies, the company behind Character.ai, Business Insider reported.
That figure covers total pay, including salary, bonus and Disney stock. On top of that pay, Disney is setting aside another $30 million as a retention pool meant to keep those employees from leaving. All told, Disney expects to spend about $180 million on the group over three years.
Most of the team has already made the jump. Of the 66 people Disney offered jobs, 56 have resigned from Character.ai, while the other 10 are waiting on US work visa updates.
Following Their Old Boss
The hires follow Disney’s new tech chief. In September, Disney named former Character.ai CEO Karandeep Anand to the newly created role of chief technology officer, and dozens of his former colleagues are now following him.
The filing landed about two weeks after Disney’s late-September layoffs, which reached some of its own tech teams. Those cuts were the company’s third major round since Josh D’Amaro took over as CEO in March.
Disney’s $20 Million Bid
The staff is only half of the deal. Disney has also agreed to pay $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to certain Character.ai technology and intellectual property, a bid we covered when Character.ai filed for bankruptcy with Disney as its stalking horse bidder. The license covers the code behind Character.ai’s training, safety and serving systems and nine patents, according to the term sheet. The app, the brand, user data and chats, and its finished AI models are not part of the deal.
Because Disney is the stalking horse bidder, its offer sets the floor. Under proposed bidding rules the court still has to approve, rival bids are due November 20, with an auction November 23. If no one tops Disney, it gets its license and Character.ai’s app is expected to shut down. Disney already has the employees either way.
Character.ai said in its bankruptcy announcement that it was facing “significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds.” The company has faced lawsuits from families who say their teenagers were harmed after using its chatbots.
Big Pay, But Not Unusual
Disney has not said publicly what the Character.ai team will work on, and it did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
The pay may be less unusual than it looks. “They’re highly compensated employees. The numbers can be eye-popping, but it’s not that unusual in this space,” entertainment lawyer Corey Martin of Granderson Des Rochers, who did not work on the deal, told Business Insider.
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