Who Will Buy Gawker?

All bids for the company through its bankruptcy auction were due by the end of the day on Monday.
From: NewNowNext

 Gawker Media was auctioned off to the highest bidder this week in order to pay the $140 million it owes after losing to Hulk Hogan in a landmark privacy case earlier this year.

When Nick Denton’s media company posted footage of a Hogan sex tape from 2012, the former wrestler decided to sue.

Then, billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, angry at Gawker for outing him as gay back in 2007, decided to fund Hogan’s lawsuit as punishment, eventually forcing the company into bankruptcy.

Now, with dozens of publishing companies having expressed interest, and with all bids due by the end of the business day on Monday, we will find out who will end up buying Gawker Media before the end of the week.

Magazine publisher Ziff Davis is at the top of the list of contenders, having already signed an offer to buy the company for $90 million, but other bidders may come in with higher offers now that they already know the price to beat.

Vox Media and Penske Media, which owns Variety magazine, are two other leading contenders, and there’s even talk of them teaming up in order to make a joint bid.

Another leading bidder for Gawker’s assets is Univision, a media company that recently acquired the humor site The Onion.

There are also a few dark-horse contenders in the race as well, including New York magazine and eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar.

Whoever the winner ends up being, they will take possession of the assets, while the amount they pay goes into an escrow account until the final decision in the Hogan case, which Gawker appealed, is finally made.

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Update

Univision has won the auction for Gawker Media.

The TV network and digital publisher has agreed to pay $135 million for the bankrupt blog network, according to a person familiar with the deal.