CBS News reports that Univision has won the auction for Gawker Media. Univision bid $135 million for the company. The only other bidder was Ziff Davis. The sale must be approved by a bankruptcy court.
From the article:
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision won an auction Tuesday for Gawker Media, which was put on the block in the aftermath of a $140 million judgment against it in the Hulk Hogan invasion-of-privacy case.
Univision is paying $135 million for the online gossip and news publisher, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the deal had not been formally announced.
In a statement Tuesday evening however, Gawker's founder confirmed they agreed to sell their business and brand to Univision.
Expanding from its Spanish-language base, Univision has been investing in media properties aimed at young people, including taking a stake in satirical website The Onion in January. In April, it said it was taking full control of Fusion, a TV channel and website aimed at English-speaking young people it had launched with ABC in 2013.
Univision outbid Ziff Davis, the owner of tech and gaming sites, in the auction for Gawker Media. They were the only two bidders, according to a person familiar with the bankruptcy auction. A judge must still approve the sale at a hearing Thursday.
previously:
Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Privacy Suit Against Gawker Media
Hulk Hogan's Sex Tape and a Tech Billionaire's Revenge on Gawker
Gawker Files for Chapter 11; Won't Pay Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel
Related Stories
Hulk Hogan has been awarded damages of $115 million in a privacy suit against Gawker, which posted a sex tape featuring Hogan (real name: Terry G. Bollea) online:
The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages on Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape — an astounding figure that tops the $100 million he had asked for, that will probably grow before the trial concludes, and that could send a cautionary signal to online publishers despite the likelihood of an appeal by Gawker.
The wrestler, known in court by his legal name, Terry G. Bollea, sobbed as the verdict was announced in late afternoon, according to people in the courtroom. The jury had considered the case for about six hours.
Mr. Bollea's team said the verdict represented "a statement as to the public's disgust with the invasion of privacy disguised as journalism," adding: "The verdict says, 'No more.' "
NYT also has this guide to the case.
Two Soylentils wrote in with an update on Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. After these stories were submitted, it appears to have been confirmed by The New York Times that Thiel paid $10 million to fund the lawsuit.
Peter Thiel Funded Hulk Hogan's Lawsuit Against Gawker
Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and libertarian who we have reported on several times, reportedly bankrolled former wrestler Hulk Hogan's (real name: Terry Bollea) lawsuit against Gawker. After Gawker published a sex tape featuring Bollea, Bollea sued and was eventually awarded $140 million by a jury. That decision is being appealed.
Thiel has had several run-ins with Gawker's reporting on his political and financial decisions, but the most prominent incident was in 2007, when the website's then-running gossip vertical Valleywag outed Thiel's sexual orientation in a post titled, "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people."
Thiel, who is now open about being gay, later called Valleywag "the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda."
Although the exact details of the arrangement between Thiel and Bollea are unknown, if Thiel negotiated for a share of the lawsuit's proceeds, he may get to stick it to Gawker while earning millions of dollars.
[Continues...]
Recode (Vox Media) reports
Gawker and owner Nick Denton are making the Chapter 11 filing today, in order to avoid paying Thiel and Hulk Hogan the $140 million judgment they won in Hogan's privacy trial earlier this year.
Update: In a memo to employees, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah says his company has an "asset purchase agreement" to buy seven Gawker titles, and says there is a "tremendous fit between the two organizations".
Previous: Hulk Hogan's Sex Tape and a Tech Billionaire's Revenge on Gawker
Gawker Becomes First Online Media Outlet to Unionize
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:40PM
How the hell do you tell which is gossip, and which is news? I'm reminded of the Enquirer, which was always beside the checkout lane at the grocery store. Mama often bought one when she shopped. I don't remember what age I was when I figured out that you could believe nothing in that rag. Some people never seem to figure that out, though.
Alternative für Deutschland
(Score: 5, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:11PM
The Mexicans are just as bad as the Brits with regard to their juxtaposition of gossip and actual news, except a lot more loudly and with hotter and more numerous curvaceous hosts and narrators.
For Mexicans, all media is like a Novela [wikipedia.org], really dramatic, although there are no ugly women and male hosts are allowed to be fat and misogynistic. Just watch one of their shows -- The Female hostess will say something mildly controversial and the male host will yell, "Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiyyyeeeeeeeee! Ay-yay-AY! Ave Maria Purisima! Que Dolore! La puta Vida!" and then both of them will start shouting over each other until the bikini girls start dancing around the stage and the show ends.
(Score: 2, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:29PM
Its the news networks that brought us Yanet Garcia, so not all is bad.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:45PM
I mean who cares about Gawker not continuing... Yanet Garcia on the other hand.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday August 18 2016, @09:41PM
But I love watching Univision day time TV. I get to make up my own dialogue and watch the hotties dance about like nitwits on shrooms. It reminds me of the Benny Hill show way back in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epKqu_VHbQU [youtube.com] Benny Hill from YouTube
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:17PM
The Enquirer did break the Monica Lewinsky story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Enquirer#Notable_stories_and_lawsuits [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:42PM
So now we know who has money to buy worthless things. Seriously, I doubt Gawker has anything of value, and I suspect the lawyers are going to grab a lot of this money.
But is Hulk going to get anything for his service to humanity by taking Gawker down? More power to him.
The sex tape you choose not to make never comes back to haunt you. Unfortunately, the one you DO make may come back to enrich you, if you or your partner get rich and famous.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:48PM
I don't know how profitable Gawker.com [wikipedia.org] is (Alexa rank 987), but you get more than 1 site [wikipedia.org] for your $135 million (is that price in addition to assuming a $140 million debt?).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:34PM
I goodnaturedly assumed that paying 135 million for the site probably includes paying off the 140 million debt.
I mean, the name recognition and intellectual property associated with the good folks of Gawker Media would probably be valued by most to be in the negative.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Thursday August 18 2016, @07:26PM
From what I understand, the 135 million is the entire amount of the bid. Most likely, it will go to the company's various creditors, which will include "Hulk Hogan," the company's suppliers and lenders, and could include the holders of certain classes of stock. Holders of common stock will likely get nothing...oh, but you're joking.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:08PM
Actually now that you mention it and looking at Ethanol's comment up there, things might get amusing with Jezebel.
Found this juicy tidbit skimming Wikipedia:
[Jezebel] has been criticized at times for how it handles race issues, including its selection in July 2014 of a white woman as the new editor-in-chief over a black candidate who had been with the site since its founding.
Of course, that's not surprising to anybody who sees feminism for what it is. Black women*, trans women (looking at you, Brianna Wu, you damned traitor**), Latinas, working-class women, etc need not apply. (Of course, anybody is free to call themselves a feminist.) Just bored, privileged upper class white twits with too much time on their hands. Well, maybe getting a Women's Studies major would entitle one admittance to the peanut gallery, but I can't fathom why that would be desirable.
I really have to wonder just what Univision could possibly be thinking, but looking over their front page [univision.com] and considering TFS, I suppose this acquisition does make some amount of sense. Just the baggage they're getting, though, good grief. Wonder if they'll try to rezzie io9? I'd LMAO.
* Probably the demographic this is most true of. I've read multiple accounts of black women getting uninvited from conferences, ignored, shunned, etc and their concerns and experiences generally sidelined and trampled over. (There's also a video over at AVFM of a black woman who seems to be just as angry and frustrated as I am with feminism.)
** I don't rightly know how somebody can be a traitor to a demographic, but in feminism it's apparently possible. So good enough.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Fnord666 on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:28PM
But is Hulk going to get anything for his service to Peter Thiel by taking Gawker down? More power to him.
FTFY
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @07:39PM
You are an old man frojack. The younger crowd is drawn to Gawker like Rapists to inebriated coeds.
Dare I say, I too am drawn for their witty banter on pointless hyperbolous "news" events. It's a strange mix of depravity, desperation, and ever-increasing apathy that signifies my generation: A generation that grew up being shit on by the whole world. Living like this has a price and at some point you just sorta go mad, like the Comedian in The Watchmen. Shit that we should worry about, we don't because we can't do nothing about that. Shit that should surprise us doesn't, because we seen some shit. Shit that is pointless but somewhat interesting? That gets all our attention because it can engage us on a level we can deal with. That is why my generation is the way it is. It is not our fault, it's all the shit you guys done to us coming home to roost. And that is Gawker's target audience, which it hits right on the money with every stupid and pointless article.
They have nothing of value? No my friend, you just ain't got a clue.
PS. Enjoy your lawn while you still got it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @12:24AM
Welcome to getting older. Every generation eventually realizes the one before them was blowing smoke up their asses in some way. Unfortunatly there is always a group out of every generation that holds onto that like a white hot burning coal of hatred to burn to the end of time.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday August 18 2016, @10:14PM
It's a bankruptcy sale, so yea his debt being by far the largest, he will get the biggest chunk of it. As for Gawker, Univision has already said they are shuttering the site. They going to "integrate" Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel and Kotaku into their Fusion Media Group. They haven't said what will happen to the other Gawker brands, but the Gawker tabloid site will cease to be next week.
(Score: 5, Informative) by butthurt on Thursday August 18 2016, @08:04PM
A post on gawker.com says that the site "will be shutting down" and that Univision only bought Gawker Media's other sites. It says that "plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalized."
http://gawker.com/gawker-com-to-end-operations-next-week-1785455712 [gawker.com]
The New York Times says that gawker.com will remain online but that no new stories will be posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/business/media/gawkercom-to-shut-down-next-week.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @09:48PM
Let's not forget, if not for their SJW bias their site wouldn't have to have been destroyed.
#TheFappening - Gawker condemns it as "misogyny".
Hulk's sex tape - Gawker screams "FREE SPEECH".
The best part is that #GamerGate was actually the death stroke. If not for a #GG supporting financier the hulk prosecution wouldn't have gone through.
"Gamers are Dead" - Remember the dozen or so SJW identity politic outlets pushing out variations of the same articles all at once claiming GG was "death throes of an identity"? Well, ain't Respawn a bitch?
Protip: The old school game journalism websites have already been headshot, they don't realize they're zombies now. The last bit of credibility was lost over #GamerGate, for no good reason but to protect their ideological hegemony. Let's Play and other game streaming outlets is the #1 people find out about new games now.
GAME OVER