A day after Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel acknowledged he was one of the financial backers of Hogan’s lawsuit against the gossip and news website, Gawker management acknowledged Thursday that the company has hired advisers.
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“We’ve always said we expect to prevail on appeal and we’ve always said we’re exploring contingency plans of various sorts so that’s not new”, Gawker told CNBC.
Thiel was seriously offended and took a swipe at Gawker’s now-defunct Silicon Valley centered blog, Valleywag, calling it the equivalent of “al-Qaeda”.
“It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence”, Thiel said to the New York Times.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was recently awarded $140 million United States in damages after Gawker posted a video of him having sex with his former best friend’s wife.
On Wednesday, Hogan and Gawker were back in a Florida court, where Judge Pamela Campbell denied Gawker’s request for a new trial and refused to reduce the damages.
Peter Thiel, who serves as president of Clarium Capital, a global hedge fund that boasts more than $700 million in assets under management, has confessed to bankrolling former WWE star Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, in his battle with online news publication Gawker.
A jury awarded Hogan $140 million over Gawker having published secretly recorded sex tapes of Hogan.Thiel, who was a major early investor in Facebook, was the target of scathing Gawker coverage.
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton attends Hulk Hogan’s trial against Gawker Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Gawker, an online media company released an adult tape of Hulk Hogan with out his permission.
Mr. Thiel has donated money to the Committee to Protect Journalists and has often talked about protecting freedom of speech.
Gawker now hopes the verdict would be overturned on appeal.
Thiel told the Times that his animus stemmed from what he viewed as bullying by the company’s blogs. Faced with significant legal expenses of its own, the media company said Thursday that it has hired an investment banker to review its options.
At least two other cases have been filed against Gawker.
Earlier this month, Hogan sued Gawker again, saying the website leaked sealed court documents containing a transcript that quoted him making racist remarks.
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Thiel said Gawker’s reports had been “very painful and paralyzing for people who were targeted” and added: “I thought it was worth fighting back”.
