Hulk Hogan's Revenge Is Complete: Gawker Set To Shut Down Next Week
Gawker announced today that it will be shutting down operations next week after nearly fourteen years in the aftermath of a $140 million court decision awarded to Hulk Hogan in his invasion-of-privacy case against them.
As noted, Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June and Gawker founder, Nick Denton, filed for personal bankruptcy protection and named Hogan as his biggest creditor. It was announced this week that Univision outbid Ziff Davis, publisher of PCMag, to purchase Gawker Media Group for $135 million, which also operates Gizmodo, Deadspin, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker and Jalopnik. Shortly after news of the sale broke this week, Hogan wrote on Twitter:
Like I said"I Slammed another Giant today Brother". HH
? Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) August 16, 2016
As noted, Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, secretly bankrolled Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker and paid approximately $10 million for the suit. Thiel, a pledged delegate for Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican National Convention, has held animosity towards Gawker ever since the website outed him as gay in 2007 in an article titled, Peter Thiel is totally gay, people.
Gawker posted the following on their website:
After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media's six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company.
Nick Denton, the company's outgoing CEO, informed current staffers of the site's fate on Thursday afternoon, just hours before a bankruptcy court in Manhattan will decide whether to approve Univision's bid for Gawker Media's other assets. The near-term plans for Gawker.com's coverage, as well as the site's archives, have not yet been finalized.