Anita Balakrishnan | @MsABalakrishnan

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CNBC.com

Gawker Media is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Gawker, a media brand known for its edgy online content, has also hired investment banker Mark Patricof of Houlihan Lokey to review its options, a source told the Journal, as a high-profile legal fight with wrestler and entertainer Hulk Hogan continues.

"We've always said we expect to prevail on appeal, and we've always said we're exploring contingency plans of various sorts, so that's not new," Gawker told CNBC.

Hogan successfully sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy after it published his sex tape with the ex-wife of a former friend. Later, Gawker posted a tape of Hogan making allegedly racist remarks, spurring another suit.

Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel has bolstered the battle, financing the lawsuit to "deter" stories that he felt had "no connection with the public interest," according to comments Thiel made to The New York Times.

The suits come as Gawker mounts an internal transition. Last summer, a slew of high-level staff left the company amid backlash over a separate story that tested the boundaries for readers and advertisers.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/26/gawker-media-exploring-options-including-potential-sale-dj.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3234927&forum_id=2#30563136)

BY LIANA B. BAKER AND ANYA GEORGE THARAKAN

Gawker Media, the New York-based owner of online news and gossip website Gawker.com, is exploring a sale following a court ruling that it pay $140 million to wrestler Hulk Hogan over the publication of a sex tape, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The company has fielded interest from a few parties but the sales process is in the early stages, one of the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is confidential. The New York Post first reported the sale effort.

Gawker has hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc (HLI.N) to explore strategic options, including a sale, or other alternatives such as a potential restructuring, one of the people said. Mark Patricof is the Houlihan banker working with the company, they added.

A representative for Gawker said in a statement, "We've always said we expect to prevail on appeal and we've always said we're exploring contingency plans of various sorts, so that's not new."

Gawker, founded by Nick Denton, owns popular blogs such as the tech-focused Gizmodo, Jezebel, which covers women's rights, and Kotaku, a video game blog. Denton owns the majority of the company.

A six-person jury in March awarded $60 million to Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, for emotional distress and $55 million for economic damages. The jury then slapped another $25 million in punitive damages on the company and Denton.

Hogan sued the website for posting a video clip in 2012 featuring him having sex with the wife of his then-best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.

Hogan testified that he did not know their consensual tryst was being recorded when it occurred nearly a decade ago.

Billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, is helping Hogan bankroll his lawsuit against Gawker Media, he told the New York Times in an article published on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gawker-media-strategic-alternatives-idUSKCN0YH1WI

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3234927&forum_id=2#30563147)

By Claire Atkinson May 26, 2016 | 2:41am

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton has begun quietly soliciting bids for the sale of his company, The Post has learned.

Denton hired Houlihan Lokey media banker Mark Patricof to advise him on the valuation of the cash-hungry company in the event that he needs to sell it to pay damages to Hulk Hogan, who was awarded $140 million by a Florida jury after Gawker posted a sex video of the wrestling legend, sources said.

At least one unnamed party has already expressed interest with a deal valued at between $50 million and $70 million, sources said.

Denton owns a 68 percent stake in Gawker after bringing in his first outside investor earlier this year. He sold a minority stake for $100 million to technology firm Columbus Nova Technology Partners, injecting some much-needed cash as the company fought the Hogan suit.

The value of the business was pegged at $250 million around the time of that deal, but that number has since sunk, sources said.

During the Hogan trial, it emerged that Gawker’s annual revenue was $48.7 million in 2015. The initial bid came in at one to 1.5 times revenue.

“The legal costs are being stripped out,” said a source familiar with the sale talks.

While sources couldn’t name the bidder, one possibility is Univision. The Post reported last month that the Spanish-language media giant was eyeing Gawker and had discussed partnering or investing in Denton’s company.

Gawker Media houses the namesake gossip site as well as Jezebel, Gizmodo and Lifehacker.

Earlier this year, Univision acquired a 40 percent stake in The Onion, the satirical site, and has been on a spending spree, snapping up digital properties.

Denton is appealing the March jury judgment in the Hogan case, but so far little has gone his way in the Florida courts.

On Wednesday, St. Petersburg Judge Pamela Campbell denied the gossip site’s motion for a new trial and let stand the massive judgment.

She’s expected to rule next month on Hogan’s request that Gawker, Denton and former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio each put $50 million into escrow pending a final resolution.

“We’ve always said we expect to prevail on appeal and we’ve always said we’re exploring contingency plans of various sorts,” a Gawker spokesman said.

Forbes broke the news on Wednesday that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, still fuming that Gawker’s Valleywag outed him as gay in 2007, was funding Hogan’s legal costs.

Thiel, a PayPal co-founder, acknowledged he was backing Hogan’s suit in an interview with The New York Times.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/26/gawker-founder-looking-to-sell-after-losing-hogan-judgment/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3234927&forum_id=2#30563160)