Gawker Media L.L.C., the online publisher ordered by a US court to pay former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan $140 million over the publication of a sex tape, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday and plans to sell itself at auction.
Advertisement
On Friday, Gawker, the embattled media business said it agreed to sell all its seven brands as well as other assets to Ziff Davis the tech publisher. According to a NY bankruptcy court, Gawker Media’s total assets are listed at between $50 to $100 million, while it has liabilities ranging from as little as $100 million to as much as $500 million.
The media firm will also be put up for auction, with fellow United States media corporation Ziff Davis making an initial bid, Gawker reported.
On Friday, the same day Gawker Media declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, the media company filed suit against Hogan and others with whom it is battling in court, seeking a legal injunction to stop the actions.
The New York publisher said in the filing that it has as much as $500 million in debt and up to $100 million in assets. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, sued Gawker for invasion of privacy after it released part of a sex tape involving him and a friend’s wife. The Gawker brand includes not only Gawker.com but also Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel. The auction is expected to begin in late July. The move comes as Gawker appeals a $140 million judgment against it for posting excerpts of a Hulk Hogan sex tape. The company was previously estimated by Denton to be worth around $300 million.
In a memo obtained by USA Today, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah wrote, “There’s a tremendous fit between the two organizations”.
Ziff Davis itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the financial crash of 2008 but reinvented itself as the owner of a variety of digital titles, including IGN, AskMen and PCMag. Gawker is reportedly bankrupt after losing a lawsuit against WWE superstar Hulk Hogan.
Gawker told staff it still planned to appeal against the ruling and would continue to operate, but it was now accepting offers to buy the site.
In 2007, Valleywag, a Gawker blog, posted a story about Thiel – “Peter Thiel is totally gay, people”.
Advertisement
Gawker Media, the notorious media company that thrived off celebrity scandals and controversies, has filed for bankruptcy on Friday. He said last month that the company’s business is built on “humiliating people for sport”.
