Bankruptcy filing shows Disney planned $180 million talent package as Character.AI shrank to 18 staff

Court documents tied to Character.AI’s bankruptcy show Disney had already moved to hire much of the company’s workforce before the filing. Disney sent job offers to 66 employees, with 56 already gone and another 10 waiting for visa adjustments. Over the next three years, Disney expects to spend about $180 million on that group, including $30 million in retention bonuses. The filing also draws a sharp contrast between the value Disney placed on personnel and the price attached to certain company assets. Disney offered $20 million for permanent, non-exclusive rights to parts of Character.AI’s technology and patents. The deal does not include the existing app, the brand, user chat logs, or finished models, indicating Disney is not seeking to acquire and run the full chatbot platform. By the time Character.AI entered bankruptcy, it had only 18 full-time employees left. Of those, 10 were still waiting to move to Disney, and the company expected just eight to remain through the critical stages of the bankruptcy process, including roughly six handling security work. The case has also drawn intervention from 40 state attorneys general in the U.S., who want safeguards for private user chats as assets are sold. Other bidders have until Nov. 20 to submit offers. If no buyer is willing to keep the service running, Character.AI will shut down.