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Peter Thiel Is Now Bidding on Gawker.com (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Its official. "Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has made an offer for Gawker," reports Reuters, adding that the potential acquisition "would let him take down stories regarding his personal life that are still available on the website, and remove the scope for further litigation between him and Gawker." It was Thiel's 2016 lawsuit which bankrupted the site, prompting a Washington Post blogger to write that Thiel "killed Gawker once. Now it looks like he may kill it again."

Elsewhere the Washington Post argues the whole episode "highlighted the immense legal risk borne by news outlets already facing a precarious financial reality in the digital age." The Post's blogger describes Thiel as "a billionaire leveraging his wealth to obliterate a media outlet...as part of a personal vendetta."

Last month former Gawker staffers attempted to crowdfund the purchase and relaunch of Gawker.com as a nonprofit media organization. But their 1,496 backers only pledged $89,844, far short of the campaign's $500,000 target.

8 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Consequences? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, it turns out running this story was not a good idea

    http://gawker.com/a-judge-told...

    Who'd have thought that contempt of court could turn the judiciary against you and get you nailed for crippling damages when someone whose privacy your tabloid bullshit has violated sues you?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. No, he's a gay Republican by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Being a Republican is apparently a crime now.

    How DARE a gay person wander off the Democrat thought plantation!

  3. Re:Maybe... by sabri · · Score: 2, Informative
    Back on topic now.

    It was Thiel's 2016 lawsuit which bankrupted the site,

    Now this is fake news. It was not Thiel's lawsuit. It was Terry Bollea's lawsuit.

    The quality of editing on /. is going down.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  4. Re:Gawk would not remove pictures of a rape by Hal_Porter · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://nypost.com/2016/03/11/...

    Jurors at Hulk Hogan's invasion-of-privacy trial heard Friday how former top Gawker editor Albert "A.J." Daulerio - who put the infamous Hogan sex tape online - also posted video of the young woman engaged in sex in a bathroom stall at a Bloomington, Ind., sports bar in May 2010.

    Days later, the woman wrote Gawker, begging that the video be taken down from its sports-themed Deadspin Website, according to e-mails read in court by Hogan lawyer Shane Vogt.

    "I am the girl in it and it was stolen from me and put up without my permission," the unidentified woman wrote on May 11, 2010.

    Gawker's complaint department forwarded the message to Daulerio, along with a note saying, "Blah, blah, blah," Vogt said.

    Daulerio then e-mailed the woman and told her to "not make a big deal out of this," adding: "I'm sure it's embarrassing but these things do pass, keep your head up."

    Then-company lawyer Gaby Darbyshire also e-mailed the woman, defending the video as "completely newsworthy" and scolding her about how "one's actions can have unintended consequences."

    But Gawker reversed itself the next day and removed the entire posting, with Daulerio later admitting to GQ magazine he had regrets because the video "wasn't funny" and "was possibly rape."

    Three women and one man on the six-member jury scribbled notes about the e-mail exchanges, with the man sternly peering over his glasses at Daulerio, 41, a co-defendant in the Hogan case.

    An expert witness appearing for Hogan also testified that Gawker boosted its corporate value as much as $15.5 million by posting the hidden-camera sex recording of the pro wrestling legend.

    Jeff Anderson, director of valuation and analytics at Consor Intellectual Asset Management, said 5.4 million people viewed the Hogan tape at Gawker between October 2012 and April 2013, resulting in a 28.5 percent spike in traffic to the site.

    Awful people. And look at Daulerio's expression in the picture - he knows both he and his employer are screwed.

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    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  5. Re:Maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    That was paid for entirely by Thiel. What's your point?

  6. Re:Maybe... by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Informative

    Correct:

    From TFA:

    Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has made an offer for Gawker, hoping to overcome legal hurdles and rival bidders for the online news site the billionaire helped shutter by funding litigation against it , people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

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    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  7. Re:Gawk would not remove pictures of a rape by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2, Informative

    Gawker was the site with a writer who ruined a woman for posting an insensitive but harmless joke on Twitter [nytimes.com].

    Gawker is a trash rag but none of their writers made that woman write a racist joke through an account tied to her real name. She deserved any consequences she happened to attract.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  8. Re:Merits of case had nothing to do with Thiel by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Informative

    All you can really argue is that Thiel allowed Bollea to have good representation and make a good case and see things to the end.

    I would argue that Thiel's patronage altered the proceedings of the case, turning down settlements and dragging out the trial as long as possible to bleed Gawker dry.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel