Gawker.com, a almost 14-year-old blog being shut down following the sale of its parent company to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, will mark its last post Monday.
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Univision’s asset purchase agreement for the deal, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of NY in Manhattan, gave the acquirer the option to exclude Gawker.com up to three days before closing of the deal.
Denton earlier this month filed for personal bankruptcy protection in a bid to stop his assets from being seized.
Bollea said the video was an invasion of privacy, while Gawker and its attorneys argued that the tape would be of public interest, given Hulk Hogan’s public persona.
During the Tuesday auction, Univision indicated that it might not be interested in acquiring Gawker.com.
A bankruptcy court judge has to approve the sale at a hearing Thursday.
Fusion Media said Thursday it acquired the six digital sites as part of bankruptcy proceedings but will not operate the Gawker site.
Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Jalopnik, Kotaku and Lifehacker also are under the Gawker Media umbrella, as well as other specialty sites, like io9.
Members of the media, including those who began their careers at Gawker, spoke out about the decision on Twitter.
As for Gawker.com, founded in 2003 and mothballed in 2016, it will live on in legend.
Following the judgement, Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy, and now television network Univision is buying the company’s assets for $US135 million ($175 million).
It’s unclear what fate awaits Gawker.com’s voluminous archives. Denton, who was found personally liable for $10 million in Hogan’s suit, reportedly told his staff on Wednesday that he will be leaving the company.
Thiel went on to secretly finance a lawsuit brought byTerry Bollea, more commonly known as the wrestler Hulk Hogan, against the company after Gawker posted a sex tape of Bollea and the then-wife of one of his close friends.
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Last summer, after the site apparently outed an executive at Condé Nast, Denton pledged to become a little nicer, and the site moved toward publishing more politically focused articles and fewer media-focused ones. “What Gawker has is a financial problem, not an audience problem”.
