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Josh D'Amaro is chairman of Disney Experiences, the division overseeing Disney's theme parks, resorts, cruises, and consumer products.
Disney expects to spend $180 million over three years on pay and retention for 66 Character.AI staff, Business Insider reported from a Chapter 11 filing. That is nine times the $20 million Disney agreed to pay for the startup's assets.
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Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro hired Karandeep Anand, who previously ran Character.AI, as the company's first companywide CTO. His first memo to staff sets focus and a willingness to say no as the terms of the job, so the first test is which technology projects lose.
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Disney's ad-supported tiers moved 50 cents or not at all while the ad-free ones moved $2.00 to $2.50, so four of its five ad-free plans now sit exactly nine dollars above their ad-supported twin. Disney says its most popular bundle is unchanged.
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Karandeep Anand takes over Disney's technology on 2 October, about a year after Disney's lawyers told the company he ran to strip its characters out of user-made chatbots. Several of his engineers come with him.
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Bob Chapek, fired as Disney CEO after less than three years, says he would turn the job down if offered again. He blames a board that brought back Bob Iger, who now sits on it while Josh D'Amaro runs the company.
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Disney is cutting about 300 jobs, mostly in HR and tech, according to CNBC's source, in the third round of layoffs since Josh D'Amaro became CEO in March. The cost programme has now reached the HR staff who administer it. The wider jobs data does not yet show other employers doing the same.
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Guidance issued in January told broadcasters that late-night and daytime talk shows are not necessarily exempt from equal time, and since then two networks have kept the same Senate candidate off air.
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Karandeep Anand becomes Disney's senior executive vice president and CTO on October 2, reporting to Josh D'Amaro. Disney expects an unspecified number of Character.AI engineers to follow him into a remit covering enterprise systems, data and AI.
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Disney has decided its streaming business is better run by one executive than by two. The memo announcing the change argues the case in the language of decision speed.
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A stock purchase plan arriving late in 2027 and reshuffled medical plans follow a year of layoffs. What the equity is worth depends on a share price down 8% over the year.
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