NEW YORK — Gawker Media founder Nick Denton filed Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection on Monday in order to prevent Hulk Hogan from attempting to seize his assets.
A.J. Daulerio, a former editor of Gawker.com, will also file for bankruptcy.
The wrestler sued Denton, Gawker and Daulerio in 2012, after the Gawker.com published a short excerpt of one of Hogan's sex tapes.
Peter Thiel, a billionaire technology venture capitalist who had a dislike for Denton and Gawker, secretly funded Hogan's lawsuit against the company. Thiel called the $10 million in financial support to the suit "one of my greater philanthropic things that I've done.”
In Hogan’s suit, a Florida jury decided in favor of Hogan, awarding him $140.1 million — $10 million against Denton personally, $15 million against Gawker and $100,000 against Daulerio personally. All three were hit jointly with an additional $115 million in damages.
Denton, on Twitter today, said: “On this bitter day for me, I am consoled by the fact that my colleagues will soon be freed from this tech billionaire’ s vendetta.”
Denton, through Gawker Media, owns Gawker.com, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalpnik and Jezebel. Earlier this year, Gawker Media itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Gawker Media once owned adult fan blog Fleshbot.com, but the company shed itself of the property in 2012 and sold it to editor Lux Alptraum.
Alptraum sold Fleshbot in 2014 to SK Intertainment, the company that operates MrSkin.com, NakedNews.com, MrMan.com and assorted adult affiliate programs.