Incorporated in the Cayman Islands,[1] as of 2012, Gawker Media was the parent company for seven different weblogs and many subsites under them: Gawker.com, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel.

[9][10] Gizmodo was subsequently acquired by Great Hill Partners along with The Onion in 2019 under the G/O Media Inc. umbrella, reportedly for less than $50 million.

[11][12][13] While Denton has generally not gone into detail over Gawker Media's finances, he made statements in 2005 that downplayed the profit potential of blogs[14] declaring that "[b]logs are likely to be better for readers than for capitalists.

[16] Combined with low operating costs—mostly web hosting fees and writer salaries—Denton was believed to be turning a healthy profit by 2006.

[19] In early 2015, Denton stated that he planned to raise $15 million in debt from various banks so as not to dilute his equity stake in the company by accepting investments from venture capital firms.

The company was headquartered early on at Nick Denton's personal residence in the New York City neighborhood of SoHo, and it remained there until 2008.

[23] Denton also announced the suspension of a bonus payment scheme based on pageviews, by which Gawker had paid $50,000 a month on the average to its staff, citing a need to generate advertising revenue as opposed to increasing traffic.

[33] The Gnosis group notes that with the source code to the Gawker content management system they obtained, it will be easier to develop new exploits.

[40][44] Rex Sorgatz, designer of Mediaite and CMO of Vyou, issued a bet that the redesigns would fail to bring in traffic, and Nick Denton took him up on it.

[54] In January 2014, Quentin Tarantino filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker Media for distribution of his 146-page script for The Hateful Eight.

He claimed to have given the script to six trusted colleagues, including Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen.

"Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people's rights to make a buck," Tarantino said in his lawsuit.

"[57][58][59] On 22 June 2013, unpaid interns brought a Fair Labor Standards Act action against Gawker Media and founder Nick Denton.

[68] In July 2015, Gawker staff writer Jordan Sargent published an article attempting to "out" a married executive at Condé Nast, over a gay porn star's alleged text correspondence.

[76] According to The Daily Beast, "a source familiar with the situation said Gawker ultimately paid the subject of the offending article a tidy undisclosed sum in order to avoid another lawsuit.

"[77] In September 2015, Gawker published a first-person narrative by a former employee of British tabloid The Daily Mail which was critical of the journalistic standards and aggregation policies for its online presence.

"[78] On October 4, 2012, AJ Daulerio, a Gawker editor, posted a short clip of Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem, the estranged wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, having sex.

[79] Hogan (who went by his real name, Terry Gene Bollea, during the trial) sent Gawker a cease-and-desist order to take the video down, but Denton refused.

[85] During the Hogan lawsuit trial Daulerio told the court that he would consider a celebrity sex tape non-newsworthy if the subject was under the age of four.

[87] In January 2016, Gawker Media received its first outside investment by selling a minority stake to Columbus Nova Technology Partners.

[94][needs update] On June 10, 2016, Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and reports suggested that the company might be negotiating with potential buyers, including a stalking horse offer from Ziff Davis for "under $100 million".

This valuation was used to give the court and Hogan the impression that Denton's stock would cover the majority of the money owed by the company.

In the wake of this revelation, the court found that Denton had not acted in good faith, and issued an order stating that Hogan could begin seizing assets from Gawker.

[97][needs update] On August 16, 2016, Univision Communications paid $135 million at auction to acquire all of Gawker Media and its brands.

This ended Gawker Media's fourteen years of operation as an independent company, as it was planned at that time to become a unit of Univision.

[98] Univision continued to operate Gawker Media's six other websites, Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, and Lifehacker.