Disney Character.AI jobs: 66 staff accepted offers

Key Takeaways

The job offers	Before the bankruptcy, Disney offered jobs to 66 of about 86 full-time employees, and those 66 accepted, a first-day declaration says. Fifty-six had already resigned.
The pay estimate	Disney estimated about $60 million a year in pay for roughly 65 offered employees, plus a $30 million retention pool. Pay and retention together are estimated at about $180 million over three years.
The license bid	Disney's stalking-horse price for a non-exclusive technology license is $20 million in cash. The bid leaves out the app, user data, and finished models, and the court has not approved the sale.
What's next	Character has asked the court for a bid deadline of Friday, Nov. 20, and an auction on Monday, Nov. 23. If no bid keeps the service running, or the sale is not approved, the company says the platform will be wound down.

Disney Worldwide Services offered jobs that 66 employees of Character Technologies accepted before the Character.AI maker filed for bankruptcy, court papers say. The Disney Character.AI jobs come with a separate $20 million opening bid for a license to some of the startup's technology. Character Technologies filed in Delaware on Monday, Oct. 12.

Disney Character.AI jobs already accepted

Character employed about 86 full-time people on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and Disney had offered jobs to 66 of them, all of whom accepted, Colin M. Adams wrote in a declaration filed Tuesday, Oct. 13. Fifty-six had resigned. The other 10 held H-1B, TN, or F-1 visas and stayed on the payroll while waiting for the U.S. government to update those visas. Adams said Character expected them to resign shortly after the filing. Eighteen full-time employees were active on Monday, Oct. 12, and eight were expected to remain through key parts of the case.

A term sheet in the bid-procedures motion says Disney agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees besides no more than six key people, including the chief executive. Reviewing about 65 offered employees, Disney estimated annual pay, including salary, bonus, and stock, at about $60 million. A $30 million retention pool would be paid on the first and second anniversaries of the initial closing, if the employee was still at Disney. Pay and retention together are estimated at about $180 million over three years, and the money goes to the workers, not to Character. Personnel costs were about $19.7 million from January through August 2026, Adams wrote.

On Friday, Sept. 18, Disney said Karandeep Anand, then Character.AI's chief executive, would take its newly created chief technology officer job on Friday, Oct. 2, reporting to Chief Executive Josh D'Amaro. "Along with Anand's appointment, a number of Character.AI's technical team are expected to join Disney," Disney's announcement said. Adams, a senior managing director at Arete Partners, signed the bankruptcy papers as Character's chief executive. Business Insider reported on Friday, Oct. 16, that Disney did not answer a request for comment. TechCrunch reported on Sunday, Oct. 18, that the papers described offers to at least 60 employees.

What the $20 million bid leaves out

Disney's cash price for the license is $20 million, the motion says. Character received $7.5 million before the bankruptcy, including a $2 million deposit that is refundable if Disney is not the buyer. The other $12.5 million is due if the license sale closes. The term sheet treats $5.5 million of the early payment as nonrefundable. The agreements were signed on Friday, Sept. 18.

Disney would not buy the Character.AI app. It would get a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license to certain technology, including training and safety tools, and any unreleased claims against employees who join Disney. Finished models, user data, training data, trademarks, and the consumer app are excluded. Character keeps them, and Disney does not take on the company's debts or lawsuits. If another buyer wins, that buyer may offer jobs to as many as 80 percent of the employees who moved to Disney and want to consider one.

The motion asks Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon, in Delaware case No. 26-11603, to let other buyers top the bid. Proposed dates include a 5 p.m. Eastern bid deadline on Friday, Nov. 20, an auction on Monday, Nov. 23, and a sale hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 24, if the court is available. Disney may walk away if the sale has not closed by Thursday, Dec. 17, unless Disney caused the delay. The court has not approved the schedule or the sale. A requested break-up fee and expense reimbursement for Disney is capped at $700,000.

The motion says the platform will be wound down if no better offer appears, or if the Disney sale is not approved. Houlihan Lokey is marketing the assets. Staff who joined Disney can keep helping run the service, the sale, or a wind-down for up to five months after Friday, Sept. 18.

Why Character filed for bankruptcy

Adams told the court that Character, which lists a Menlo Park, California, address, serves about 12 million monthly active users who spend about 120 minutes a day on the service on average, though usage varies widely. Monthly revenue rose from about $2.8 million in December 2025 to about $5.3 million in August 2026, against an operating loss of about $8 million to $9 million a month. Computing costs were about $56.1 million in the first eight months of 2026. Cash and investments were about $57 million on Monday, Oct. 12, with no funded debt.

Lawsuits and investigations made new capital hard to raise, the declaration says. Character had settled the personal-injury cases then on file by early 2026. The company tied those cases to allegations of youth self-harm and suicide. A later complaint alleging harm to a minor was filed in the Northern District of California in August 2026. Attorneys general from 46 states and territories were investigating as of the filing, and Kentucky and Pennsylvania have sued. Other chatbot makers face safety cases too, including a case eight states filed against OpenAI.

A banker approached about 28 possible buyers or investors from August 2025 until late August 2026 and brought one proposal Adams called unworkable. By September, departures threatened the company's ability to keep the service safe. Independent directors then chose Disney's plan to move most of the staff and test the license in court.