Gawker Is Shutting Down For Good Next Week

The company is blaming gay billionaire Peter Thiel's "clandestine legal campaign."
From: NewNowNext

Two days after the Univision network purchased Gawker for $135 million in a court-ordered auction, the website has announced it “will be shutting down next week.”

The gossip blog’s 14-year reign was essentially destroyed by a lawsuit both the company and CEO Nick Denton lost against Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea, over a private sex tape Gawker published and refused to remove years ago.

Writer J.K. Trotter announced the news in a Gawker post shortly after staff were notified this afternoon. It reads in full:

“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.”

Bollea’s lawsuit was bankrolled by gay billionaire Peter Thiel, who made millions as an initial investor at PayPal. In an op-ed published by the New York Times on Tuesday, Thiel justified his legal campaign against Gawker and Denton as payback for forcibly outing him publicly in 2007.

“I had begun coming out to people I knew, and I planned to continue on my own terms,” Thiel wrote. “Instead, Gawker violated my privacy and cashed in on it.”