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After Bankrupting Gawker, Peter Thiel Demands a Chance to Buy Them (buzzfeed.com)

An anonymous reader quotes BuzzFeed: In a federal bankruptcy court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for venture capitalist Peter Thiel objected to the ongoing sale process of Gawker.com, arguing that the billionaire has been unfairly excluded from bidding for the assets of the defunct news website... Whoever ends up buying the site will also buy its archives, which are still up, and will have the right to do with them what they want, including delete them. In the filing, Thiel's lawyers allege that he was prevented from receiving information in regard to a potential bid for Gawker.com by plan administrator William Holden and his counsel, Gregg Galardi, following a Wall Street Journal story in October that said Holden and Galardi had started to market the website to potential buyers...

The Wall Street Journal reported that Holden has been exploring the sale of Gawker.com since July, and that he recently marketed the site's potential legal claims against Thiel as part of its appeal. The marketing of those claims is at the center of Thiel's complaint, in which his lawyers argue that Holden should not be able to conduct a sale of those claims and ask that the court drop a motion that allows for discovery to move forward. Thiel's representatives also said that they contacted those administrating the sale of Gawker.com last month "to express Mr. Thiel's interest in participating in the sale process," but that they had been rebuffed and then ignored.

Thiel's complaint calls him the "most able and logical purchaser."

4 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Seller's choice by Fencepost · · Score: 5, Informative

    The argument to be made to a bankruptcy judge will likely be that if Thiel is willing to pay more than anyone else then it should be sold to him so that money can be used to settle Gawker's outstanding debts. Barring him from the bidding may reduce the amount paid and thus harm the creditors.

    I do find myself wondering every time I see him mentioned whether Thiel actually has any redeeming qualities at all.

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    fencepost
    just a little off
  2. Re: Hating on Thiel and alternative facts by mi · · Score: 4, Informative

    No buyer is entitled to the purchase.

    Yes, usually it is up to the sellers to decide. But Gawker aren't the sellers any more — they are bankrupt and owned by their creditors, represented by the bankruptcy judge. It is the judge's duty to liquidate the property in a manner most profitable to the creditors. Hence my statement: whoever wants to thwart Thiel, has to offer more money.

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    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  3. Re:Peter Thiel is just another Republican faggot by niftydude · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not "being gay is magical armor" it's "treat gays like human beings for fuck sake (which many republicans still have issues with)" which means they can do bad things and be hated on.

    If that was the case, then you wouldn't have the word "faggot" in your comment subject. The second a homosexual does something that doesn't fit into your ethical framework, people like the AC op call him a "faggot" and a "traitor".

    You can't use a historically bigoted insult, then just claim you are treating Thiel like a regular human being that has done a bad thing.

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    You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
  4. Microsoft had it down to a science by raymorris · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft perfected that process back in the day. They'd make a great offer for a company's technology. Microsoft would agree to buy X units, at a price very profitable to the company, after they made a few improvements or integrations with Microsoft's other software. Of course, the target company wasn't allowed to sell to anyone else during that period. In the fine print Microsoft would get right of first refusal if the company was ever sold.

    The company would work to make the improvements and integrations Microsoft asked for, unable to take any other customers during that time. When it came time for Microsoft to accept delivery, they'd sit on it for a month and not reply. Then they'd decline delivery, asking for more changes. When that run-around finally ended they'd eventually have to accept delivery, so then they sit in making the payment. Sometimes the contract might call for a late fee, which doesn't matter when they aren't paying anyway. A year after the contract was signed, without being allowed to sell to any other customers and having not been paid by Microsoft, the company would go under. The owners might well be behind on their mortgage at this point. That's when Microsoft would offer to buy the company for a pittance. They did the same dance over and over again.