Gawker Media has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Hulk Hogan , according to multiple reports, ending a years-long legal battle waged against it with the partial support of tech billionaire Peter Thiel. As Gawker founder Nick Denton wrote in a blog post this week announcing the settlement: “The saga is over.” The deal requires Gawker to pay Hogan (né Terry Bollea) $31 million, …
Gawker Media’s new owner, Univision, has removed previously published posts on Gawker sites Deadspin, Gizmodo and Jezebel that relate to the company’s legal issues. Gawker Media executive editor John Cook said in a memo to staff that Univision execs Felipe Holguin and Jay Grant suggested deleting seven posts because they were “under active litigation against Gawker Media” and that Univision …
Legalist is a startup founded by Thiel Fellow Eva Shang and Christian Haigh, backed by Y Combinator: it will use data-mining to identify people who have been legally wronged by deep-pocketed aggressors and offer to finance their litigation in return for a share of the winnings. report this ad This tactic, called “champerty,” used to be illegal, but as it has morphed into the more thrusting, …
ESPN is no Gawker, but the sports giant is now facing the prospect of a trial in Florida that has shades of the litigation brought by Hulk Hogan over an invasion of privacy. New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is suing ESPN and star reporter Adam Schefter over a tweet that revealed an amputated right finger as a result of a July 4 celebration last year. The NFL star asserts he …
Did you look at Peter Thiel’s systematic destruction of Gawker via the American legal system and think “Wow, it’s too difficult to extract money from corporations and people using the courts?” Did you think, “Why don’t I try that?” If you answered yes to either question, there’s a startup you should meet. Legalist is a Silicon Valley startup that was developed in the Y Combinator incubator offering …
In the wake of a devastating lawsuit and a proposed selloff of its holding company to Univision, Gawker.com will shut down next week, ending almost 14 years of independent — and at times inflammatory — publishing. Gawker filed for bankruptcy protection in June, after a jury ordered it to pay celebrity wrestler Hulk Hogan $140 million in damages for the publication of a sex tape in which he is …
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel is defending his financial support for litigation targeting Gawker Media for its reporting on celebrities by likening it to efforts to crack down on privacy violations like “revenge porn.” In a New York Times op-ed on Monday defending his decision to fund a case that ultimately forced the media company to put itself up for sale, Thiel cited the Intimate Privacy …
Back in May, we told you about Gawker’s report that Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly was pursuing a lawsuit against his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy. In lieu of a proper complaint, there was a vague notice saying that he would be suing her for defrauding him during their divorce as a way of financing her “existing extra-marital relationship.” On Friday, Gawker followed up further, reporting …
Last night, Forbes reported out a rumor that has been circulating among media reporters for the last several months: Hulk Hogan’s $140 million lawsuit against Gawker Media was bankrolled by a wealthy benefactor, namely Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. The story, attributed to multiple anonymous sources, broke just hours before Gawker Media was scheduled to appear in a St. Petersburg, …
A day after Gawker founder Nick Denton told the New York Times he had a “personal hunch” that someone linked to Silicon Valley was funding the onslaught of lawsuits against Gawker Media—which resulted in a potentially …