Gawker Founder Makes Out While Site Dies

Crippled by losing a $115 million privacy lawsuit to wrestler Hulk Hogan for posting portions of his sex tape, Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy, decided to shut down its primary website, and sold itself to Univision for $135 million. Founder Nick Denton, in exchange for not hiring or soliciting Univision’s employees, will receive $16,666 a month for the next two years. Though that seems a hefty sum to be paid to do nothing, Denton also filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and has more than $1.7 million in mortgage payments on a condo in New York City. He told the court that the non-compete salary represents a “material reduction from” his current pay. A bankruptcy judge approved the deal. Denton sent a memo to staff saying he planned to “move on to other projects, working to make the web a forum for the open exchange of ideas and information, but out of the news and gossip business.”