Thiel toss is Gawker goss
Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel is withdrawing his bid to buy shuttered Gawker.com — a move that is expected to clear the way for a new suitor who may revive the gossip site.
Thiel, who famously bankrolled a lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker Media in March 2016, had planned to keep the site dark had he bought it.
In exchange for Thiel withdrawing his bid, lawyers for Gawker will drop an investigation into the investor’s funding of wrestler Hulk Hogan’s sextape lawsuit against Gawker.
Lawyers for the Gawker estate had been exploring a potential suit against Thiel and his Hollywood lawyer, Charles Harder, who represented Hogan in his invasion of privacy suit against Gawker.
Gawker Media’s Bank- ruptcy Court administrator determined the deep-pocketed Thiel’s participation in an auction “may have a chilling effect” on the sale price.
“He may be able to elicit greater interest and higher bids from other prospective purchasers if the Thiel parties are excluded from participation in the sale process,” according to settlement papers.
Thiel was said to have a vendetta against the gossip site based on a report that carried the headline, “Peter Thief is totally gay, people” more than a decade ago.
Gawker’s other sites have been sold to Univision — with only Gawker.com remaining in Chapter 11.
Potential bidders for the gossip site are digital marketing executive Kevin Lee, who heads Didit.com, and Mike Cernovich, an alt-right author and talk show host. In addition, a group of former Gawker employees may make an offer, sources said.
“We are still pursuing it,” Lee told The Post.
Meanwhile, Cernovich sees a conspiracy in the timing of Thiel’s exit.
“Bidding was closed months ago,” Cernovich said. “Why did the trustees go back door to deal with only one bidder without alerting other bidders? This is shady.”