With a $140 million lawsuit hanging over its head, Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, June 10.
Along with declaring bankruptcy, owner Nick Denton also put the company and all seven of its brands and assets up for sale through an auction.
The digital media company Ziff Davis has put in an opening bid, which reportedly was between $90 to $100 million.
Interestingly enough, although Ziff Davis showed interest in buying all Gawker Media properties including Gizmodo, Kotaku and Jezebel, Gawker.com was not mentioned when describing how acquiring these sites could benefit the company in a memo written by CEO Vivek Shah.
However, since Gawker Media is in auction, the company could be sold to the highest bidder. According to the company's bankruptcy documents filed in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court, its assets are between $50 and $100 million. The company was previously estimated by Denton to be worth around $300 million.
But that was before the trial. All of this all dates back to the lack of journalistic integrity Gawker showed when it published a video of famed wrestler Hulk Hogan having sex back in 2012. Hogan, with the financial help from venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal Peter Thiel, then took the company to court for the invasion of his privacy and was awarded a $140.1 million settlement. (Thiel also has a vendetta against Gawker after the website insensitively reported on his sexuality back in 2006.)
Putting the company up for sale only goes to show how much the Gawker ship has been sinking after the Hulk Hogan lawsuit. And it could be a way to avoid paying the large fine.
Hogan will still see his money eventually, just not all of it. With the company now in auction, proceeds would go toward paying Hogan, but since the company is bankrupt he won't be getting all of his $140.1 million.
It's important to add that Gawker has plans to appeal the lawsuit verdict, but Hogan's lawyer revealed they will still pursue the case in any court.
And so the bidding begins.
However, there has been trouble in the water way before the Hogan incident went down. Gawker has always been known to be a bit controversial, but the site may have pushed the envelope multiple times in the past. Some stories shifted from being news to be more as pieces that humiliated its subjects - case in point with Thiel.
Thiel was bashed by the site for his business failures, and his sexuality was outed - a complete invasion of privacy. Thiel has since made it his mission to take down Gawker.
Prior to the lawsuit case when Hogan sued Gawker Media for releasing the tape, the company sold a minority stake to the investment company Columbus Nova Technology Partners.
The Gawker auction is expected to take place in July.
