Gawker Media To Shut Down Next Week After Losing Hulk Hogan Case
Gawker's founder Nick Denton breaks the bad news to staff聽at the New York-based news and gossip website.
Thursday 18 August 2016 20:44, UK
Gawker.com will shut next week as its parent company is sold for $135m (拢102m) to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.
A Gawker report said its editor Nick Denton, who founded the New York-based gossip website 14 years ago, broke the news to staff.
A bankruptcy court judge has to approve the sale at a hearing on Thursday afternoon.
The sale follows a $140m judgment in March against Gawker in a .
A Florida jury found Gawker violated his privacy by publishing a secretly filmed video of him having sex with his former best friend's wife in 2012.
It later emerged Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel had bankrolled Hogan's lawsuit.
Thiel, a board member of Facebook, was outed as gay by a Gawker-owned website in 2007.
After it was confirmed that Thiel was the shadowy sponsor of Hogan's legal action, Gawker's editor called him a "thin-skinned billionaire".
Thiel hit back in a New York Times editorial, writing: "It is ridiculous to claim that journalism requires indiscriminate access to private people's sex lives."
Gawker Media's other blogs included the women-focused Jezebel, tech-oriented Gizmodo and sports site Deadspin.