00:00It's Benzinga, bringing Wall Street to Main Street.
00:02Walt Disney plans to pay $60 million annually for 66 Character.ai employees,
00:08shortly after laying off several hundred of its own workers.
00:12The compensation plan was disclosed in a Chapter 11 filing by Character.ai's parent company.
00:18Disney hired Character.ai CEO Karandeep and And in September as its first company-wide
00:24technology chief. The hires are part of CEO Josh DeMauro's artificial intelligence strategy.
00:30Disney also plans to set aside $30 million for employee retention,
00:34bringing total compensation and retention spending to $180 million over three years.
00:40The company agreed to pay $20 million for Character.ai assets,
00:44including intellectual property and technology.
00:47Competing bids are due November 20th, with the sale subject to court approval.
00:52For all things money, visit Benzinga.com.
