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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and libertarian who we have reported [soylentnews.org] on several [soylentnews.org] times [soylentnews.org], reportedly bankrolled [npr.org] 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 [soylentnews.org]. 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 [gawker.com]."

Thiel, who is now open about being gay, later called Valleywag "the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda [pehub.com]."

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.

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