Florida – Gawker Media, an online media company, asked by a Florida Court to pay 140 million dollars to wrestler Hulk Hogan has hired an investment bank to advice it.
Gawker had hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc (HLI.N) to advice it, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, is helping Hulk Hogan bankroll a lawsuit against Gawker Media.
“We’ve had bankers engaged for quite some time given the need for contingency planning around Facebook board member Peter Thiel’s revenge campaign and that’s how the Columbus Nova investment was arranged,’’ Gawker said.
Investment Company Columbus Nova Technology Partners took a minority stake in Gawker Media earlier this year.
Gawker also confirmed it had hired Houlihan Lokey media banker Mark Patricof and said the move seemed to had stirred up some excitement, when nothing is 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.
A six-person jury in March awarded 60 million dollars to Hogan for emotional distress and 55 million dollars for economic damages.
The jury then slammed another 25 million dollars 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.
Hogan testified that he did not know their consensual meeting was being recorded when it occurred nearly a decade ago. (Reuters/NAN)
