Gawker Files For Bankruptcy & Goes Up For Sale, All Because They Outed Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel's long-standing efforts to defeat Gawker Media LLC have paid off--Gawker has filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a $140 million judgement against it, and is officially going up for sale, according to The New York Times.

Thiel has been fighting this war since 2007, when Gawker outed the hedge fund billionaire and PayPal co-founder. Gawker writer Owen Thomas published an article, "Peter Thiel is Totally Gay, People," at a time when Thiel claims he was not yet "out." According to Thiel, the article "ruined people's lives for no reason," and he's sought revenge ever since.

As co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, and an early investors of Facebook, Peter Thiel is extremely wealthy. In 2014, Forbes' Midas List estimated his personal net worth at $2.2 billion.

In 2012, Gawker published a video clip of Hulk Hogan having sex with the wife of his friend, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. When Gawker refused to take down the video, Hogan sued. But several elements of the lawsuit didn't add up to Gawker founder Nick Denton, including the high cost of the attorneys and dropping elements of the suit that would have been covered by insurance. Denton speculated that one of several Silicon Valley targets of Gawker's coverage may have paid for the suit.

In fact it wass Thiel who secretly bankrolled the wrestler's lawsuit against Gawker, and was identified by Forbes as the money source earlier this week. Interestingly, Hogan's attorney never met with Thiel and reportedly never knew who was funding the case until Forbes broke the story. After being outed as the funder, Thiel called it one of his "philanthropic efforts." This March, a jury awarded Hogan with $60 million for emotional distress, $55 million for economic damages, and $25 million in punitive damages.