The ‘saga is over’: Gawker settles with Hulk Hogan for $31 million

Reporting from NEW YORK —  The shell of Gawker has settled with Hulk Hogan for $31 million, ending a years-long fight that led to the media company’s bankruptcy, the shutdown of Gawker.com and the sale of Gawker’s other sites to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.

Gawker founder Nick Denton in a Wednesday blog post said that the “saga is over.”

The invasion-of-privacy case, which revolved around a sex tape posted on Gawker.com, resulted in a $140-million verdict won by the former professional wrestler in a Florida court. It became even more notorious when it emerged that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel had secretly bankrolled the suit. Thiel was outed as gay by a Gawker-owned website in 2007.

The settlement instead means Hogan will get $31 million as well as 45% of the proceeds from potential sale of Gawker.com, said Elizabeth Traub, a spokeswoman for Hogan’s lawyer, David Houston. Gawker.com is dormant but its archives remain online.

Houston said in an emailed statement, “All parties have agreed it is time to move on.”

Denton said in the Wednesday post that he was confident that an appeals court would have reduced the $140-million verdict, but “an all-out war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight. … Gawker’s nemesis was not going away.” Thiel has said he would support Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, “until his final victory.”

Denton also said Wednesday that as part of the settlement, three “true stories” — about Hogan and two others who had also filed suit — were being “removed from the Web.” Univision, which bought Gawker Media’s other sites for $135 million, has already deleted several posts from the properties it now owns, which include tech blog Gizmodo and women-oriented site Jezebel, because they were tied to litigation.

Denton himself also had to file for personal bankruptcy because of the Florida court’s verdict. Court documents filed Wednesday said there have been settlement talks between Gawker and Denton as well, although they have not reached a final settlement.

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UPDATES:

11:25 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details and background on the invasion of privacy case.

This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m.