An Update on Character.ai
blog.character.ai
Today, we’re sharing that Character.ai has initiated a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to facilitate a court-supervised sale of the company.  Over the past year, we’ve taken meaningful steps to sustain and improve our business amid significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. After a comprehensive review
  • 42yeah@eviltoast.orgEnglish
    2·
    6 hours ago

    Reverse aquihire means no trademarks and no company assets though, right? Just the talent s being hired away. That means the founding team have already noticed that company is going down, otherwise why leave the company you founded?

    • VibeSurgeon@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      It means you:

      • Pay off the investors by licensing the tech, so they get made whole
      • Hire whichever employees you feel like taking from the team, typically the founders + their favourites
      • Leave the rest of the company in place

      You can do it as a founder as a type of exit where you get paid a whole lot of money.

      The bad part is that every other employee at the company basically gets stiffed. The “social contract” of startups is that you forego a big tech-level compensation package in favour of stock options which may provide returns at the point of an exit. In reverse acquihires this social contract is directly violated.