Updating: Gawker to Shut Down

Gossip and News Site to Cease Operations Next Week

After a lawsuit secretly funded by billionaire Peter Thiel bankrupted Gawker Media, the company’s namesake website will cease operations next week, Gawker’s J.K. Trotter reports.

In a surprise move, after Gawker founder Nick Denton had announced publishing giant Ziff-Davis would be buying Gawker Media, Univision won in an auction, paying a reported $135 million for Gawker’s assets, including six other websites in the Gawker family: Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, and Lifehacker.

Gawker co-founder Nick Denton also filed for personal bankruptcy recently.

Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, helped fund a lawsuit by Terry Gene Bollea, aka “Hulk Hogan,” after Gawker published a sex video of the WWE star.

Some responses via Twitter:

NY Times tech columnist:

Talking Points Memo editor:

Mother Jones editor in chief:

NY Times and MSNBC reporter:

Huffington Post editor:

Washington Post political reporter:

Buzzfeed reporter:

Senior editor at The Atlantic:

Huffington Post senior politics editor:

NBC News and MSNBC reporter:

Others:

 

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