Thiel Makes a Bid for Gawker.com, a Site He Helped Bankrupt

Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire, submitted a bid to purchase Gawker.com, the remaining unsold property from the Gawker Media gossip empire that was nearly destroyed in 2016 by a lawsuit largely bankrolled by Thiel. If approved, the acquisition could be the last step in a yearslong effort by Thiel to finish an independent journalism outfit that angered him in 2007 when it reported, without his permission, that he is gay, a fact widely known at the time in Silicon Valley. Gawker.com has received other offers, and it is not clear if Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, will prevail. A winning bid is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, if representatives of Gawker.com do not take the site off the market.