Gawker to End Operations Next Week
By J.K. Trotter
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. Staffers will soon be assigned to other editorial roles, either at one of the other six sites or elsewhere within Univision. Near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized.
Gawker.com is dead and Hulk Hogan is filthy rich. The media company, recently purchased by Univision who killed its flagship site, settled with the disgraced wrestling star on Wednesday afternoon for a cool $31 million, according to court filings and former CEO Nick Denton’s blog.
The former wrestler sued Gawker, Mr Denton and former editor AJ Daulerio after the website published a sex tape featuring him. Over the summer, he was awarded $140 million in damages after claiming he suffered emotional distress. Today, Mr Denton admitted that he would not be able to fund the appeals process against billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel, who bankrolled the lawsuit after he was outed as gay more than nine years ago.
