Gawker Files For Bankruptcy Following $140 Million Hulk Hogan Verdict

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York following a costly privacy lawsuit with Hulk Hogan over a video showing him having sex with his then-best friend's wife.

Hogan sued Gawker earlier this year after it posted a video of him having sex with his then-best friend's wife. Hogan said he didn't know he was being taped.

Hogan was awarded $115 million in compensatory damages plus an added $25.1 million in punitive damages.

It was later revealed that billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel had been secretly funding Hogan's lawsuit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the media company will be put up for auction with a starting bid of $100 million from publisher Ziff Davis LLC.

Gawker said in the filing that it has as much as $500 million in debt and up to $100 million in assets.

Hogan's lawyer Kenneth Turkel said Gawker Media's gross revenues in 2015 were $48.7 million and that founder Nick Denton has a total of $121 million, including a $3.6 million Manhattan condo. Gawker Media is worth $83 million, the lawyers said.

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