Peter Thiel is secretly funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media, according to sources who spoke to Forbes and The New York Times on the condition of anonymity.
Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful investors, once described Gawker as “the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda,” and was once outed as gay by the publication.
“According to people familiar with the situation who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, Thiel, a cofounder and partner at Founders Fund, has played a lead role in bankrolling the cases Terry Bollea, aka Hogan, brought against New York-based Gawker,” Forbes reported. “Hogan is being represented by Charles Harder, a prominent Los Angeles-based lawyer."
In March, Hogan was awarded $140 million in his lawsuit over a private sex tape Gawker published. Before the reports surfaced, Gawker’s founder Nick Denton suspected that the lawsuit was being funded by a third party.
“We write stories about powerful people in New York, but there are plenty of outlets writing stories about powerful people in New York,” he told Forbes, who first reported the story.
“We write stories about powerful people in LA, but there are plenty of outlets writing stories about powerful people in LA. What’s unique about Gawker is that we’re an internet publication and the tech industry is of particular interest to us. There are powerful people in Silicon Valley and the power of Silicon Valley is a relatively new phenomenon.”
