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Gawker Settles With Hogan, Will Remove Several Articles

Denton laments uphill legal battle against Peter Thiel.

Nick Denton, former head of Gawker Media, announced Wednesday that a settlement has been reached in the Hulk Hogan lawsuit, with the website agreeing to take down several posts, including the one regarding the pro wrestler’s leaked sex tape. “After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached,” Denton wrote in a Medium post. “The saga is over. As the most unpalatable part of the deal, three true stories—about Hulk Hogan, the claim by Shiva Ayyadurai that he invented email, and the feud between the founders of Tinder—are being removed from the web.” Such a deal effectively means Gawker has dropped its appeal of a Florida judgment against the media company. “All-out legal war with [billionaire lawsuit financier Peter] Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight,” Denton further lamented. “The Valley billionaire, famously relentless, had committed publicly to support Hulk Hogan beyond the appeal and ‘until his final victory.’ Gawker’s nemesis was not going away.” Hogan’s lawyer David Houston, in a statement to The Daily Beast, wrote: “As with any negotiation for resolution, all parties have agreed it is time to move on.”