Gawker Settles Hulk Hogan Lawsuit for $31 Million
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Gawker Media has reached a $31 million settlement with former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, bringing an end to the four-year-long invasion of privacy lawsuit that ultimately shuttered its flagship website.
“The saga is over”, Gawker founder Nick Denton said in a blog post. He added that “the most unpalatable part of the deal” was that Gawker would have to remove three stories, including the one involving Hogan, from its site.
Back in March, a Florida jury awarded $140 million to Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, who had sued Gawker for publishing his sex tape without his consent. The company was forced into bankruptcy and later sold itself to Univision, which decided to do away with Gawker’s namesake website. It was later revealed that the lawsuit was being bankrolled by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who was outed as gay by Gawker.
Though Gawker put on a brave and defiant face throughout the proceedings, it eventually decided that an “all-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people,” Denton explained.
Gawker was founded in 2002 and quickly established itself as a brash and caustic media upstart, blurring the line between journalism and gossip to great effect. Its massive popularity was rooted in its promise to give its readers an unvarnished peek behind the proverbial veil and publish stories that established outlets shied away from. It cemented its reputation for brutal honesty by airing gossip and sex tapes, and liberally littering its articles with obscenities.
