KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Hulk Hogan's $140 (£106) million lawsuit against Gawker Media, has forced the company to accept a buyout during its bankruptcy negotiations and now the site that ran the story which started this whole mess, Gawker.com, is shutting down for good. All staff will be moved over to other publications in the coming week.
The whole fiasco between Hulk, real name Terry Bollea, and Gawker, began way back in 2012, when the website published a segment of a sex tape between Bollea and a friend's wife. Hogan later sued and after a multiple year trial process, was awarded $115 million in compensation and a further $25 million in punitive damages.
Source: Wikimedia
That was too much for Gawker Media to swallow and though it has begun an appeals process, it filed for bankruptcy shortly after and its assets were sold to broadcast network Univision, which has now announced the closure of Gawker.com.
“Nick Denton, the company’s outgoing CEO, informed current staffers of the site’s fate on Thursday afternoon,” a post on the site reads. “Staffers will soon be assigned to other editorial roles, either at one of the other six sites or elsewhere within Univision. Near-term plans for Gawker.com’s coverage, as well as the site’s archives, have not yet been finalised.”
It also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Peter Thiel, calling his role as financier of Bollea's lawsuit a, “clandestine legal campaign.” Thiel, a Facebook billionaire and original founder of Paypal, helped go after Gawker after it outed him as gay in a piece released in 2007.
No word yet on what the future holds for other Gawker Media run sites, like Jezebel, Deadspin, Gizmodo and Kotaku.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: As much as it's hard to support wealthy individuals taking down a news site, it's even harder to defend Gawker's actions in essentially posting revenge porn and claiming it as news.
While I would never condone what Gawker did (read: It’s disgusting, not the only shit they pulled, and I’m happy they’re gone) a fine of $140 million seems somewhat excessive and I wonder if a non-celebrity would be awarded with similar compensation when suing a site for publishing revenge porn (or any kind of sex tape without consent of the parties involved). I get the impression that typically you should be happy when they get a slap on the wrist.
I’m glad they are dead, I literally hate “news” outlets like this who publish unnecessary ‘stories’ just for the sensationalism. I understand that celebs have to deal with intrusions in their life – they chose to be famous and there are costs to that, but private lives should remain private……..I mean how is the world a better place for seeing Hulk doing the nasty with his mates wife ??
Maybe the payout was a little high but again that’s celebrities for you, if you damage their reputation expect to pay a heavy cost. I was so happy when the UK’s “News of the World” shut down for pulling the same type of crap, only they used phone hacking and picked on some targets that they should have left alone – like the parents of a missing little girl etc etc, Google the full story if you are interested.
Bye bye bottom feeders.
No, but why would a normal person who isn’t famous have a sex tape leaked on gawker?
<<hp.. ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★::::::!il361r:….,……
I currently earn around 6-8 thousand bucks a month with an online job. For anyone looking to work easy online jobs for few h /a day from your house and make decent payment for doing it… This is an opportunity for you… SELF59.COM fgfgfgbjkhfvbfjefvsdfh
Why would it have to be on Gawker? The Internet is a bit bigger than one website.
Because gawker published Hogans sex tape, you a loon or something?
Yes, there was actually a show about me that was popular in the past century: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes You should watch it; great fun if I do say so myself.