Settlement Reached With Hulk Hogan Over Privacy Invasion Lawsuit, Says Gawker Founder
The founder of Gawker Media, embroiled in four-year legal battle with Hulk Hogan, who sued over the publishing of video excerpts from a sex tape, said in a Wednesday blog post that his company settled with the former wrestler. In…
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March, a Florida jury awarded Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, a $140 million judgment against Gawker. The site's founder Nick Denton wrote he was confident an appeals court would have reduced or eliminated the judgment, but an "all-out legal war" against PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who funded the privacy lawsuit, "would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight." Several media reports pegged the settlement at $31 million. Univision Communications bought Gawker Media Group for $135 million in August after Gawker filed for bankruptcy in June, with Gawker.com being shut down (see 1608180068). This week, Thiel defended the suit, speaking to reporters in Washington (see 1610310051). Our email Wednesday to Bollea's lawyer David Houston wasn't returned.