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Disney Bids On Character.AI As It Files For Bankruptcy
Avatar Mickey // Courtesy of Disney
Disney is circling Character.AI’s assets as the avatar startup files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Big Picture: Disney has been looking to level up its interactive offerings for the past several years, including through a wide-ranging partnership with Epic Games. But what Disney really wants is a consumer-facing AI strategy (it had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it deal with OpenAI’s Sora), and scooping up Character.AI at a bargain price could be an easy way to achieve that goal.
Behind The Scenes: AI Mickey Mouse incoming.
Character.AI is looking to sell all of its assets through its bankruptcy proceedings, with deals expected to close by December.
Disney has already emerged as a stalking-horse bidder with a $20 million offer for a “non-exclusive perpetual license of certain Company intellectual property and certain Company claims.”
Other bidders could emerge during the sale process, but Disney will have the right to match or exceed their offers.
Closing Thoughts: Character.AI has been mired in controversy over the past few years, but that’s not stopping Disney from pursuing both its assets and talent. The key tech would be its avatar-making software, which could allow Disney to create digital, interactive chatbots of its characters. Additionally, Disney would acqui-hire all of Character.AI’s employees.
The writing’s been on the wall for Disney’s interest in Character.AI. The Mouse House hired its former CEO, Karandeep Anand, as its first CTO just last month… so it’s clear that new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro already had the inside track.
Coming Soon: With Google being Character.AI’s largest creditor, the tech giant could jump into the ring to acquire the company… potentially setting off a bidding war with Disney.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, polled, and copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.