Gawker Media's six other digital platforms are expected to continue working, after Univision announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire them for $135 million, reportedly agreeing to keep 95 percent of the bankrupt company's employees in the United States and Hungary on the job.
The company went bankrupt after it lost a trial to ex-professional wrestler Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea, who, with deep-pockets assistance from a billionaire tech investor, sued Gawker for compromising his privacy and reputation after the website posted a video of him having sex with his best friend's wife.
It was later revealed that Hogan's suit was brought with the clandestine financial support of PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who was outed as gay in 2007 by Gawker Media site Valleywag.
"It's less about revenge and more about specific deterrence," Thiel claimed in an interview with the New York Times, publicly confirming his funding of the case.
"I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest."
Denton responded by recalling a list of valuable news broken by Gawker over the years, including Hillary Clinton's secret email account, Bill Cosby's history of abusing women and the mayor of Toronto as a crack addict.
In March this year, a Florida jury awarded Bollea $115 million in the suit, tacking on another $25 million in punitive damages against Gawker Media, $10 million against Denton personally, and $100,000 against then-editor A.J. Daulerio.
Nick Denton informed current staffers on Thursday that he would be ending his time in the "news and gossip business" but gave hope for "a second act" for the site in the future.
