No sex tape is worth this much.
By Dileep Thekkethil
After slamming $115 million on Gawker Media for posting snippets of a sex tape of the veteran wrestler Terry Gene Bollea aka Hulk Hogan, a jury on Monday added an additional $25 million to the compensation.
Now the publishing firm faces an imminent shutdown as it reportedly does not have the cash to pay the wrestler.
In total, the Gawker Media, which owns Gawker.com as well as Gizmodo.com and Jezebel.com, will have to pay a whopping $140 million to Hogan. Gawker may appeal the verdict.
But if the courts rule against the plea of Gawker Media, the company will find itself in a tough position financially. According to the financial details of the privately held firm, Gawker Media earned $6.63 million operating income in 2014 on revenue of $44.3 million.
The total value of the company is estimated to be just $83 million.
Gawker’s attorney Michael Berry told the jury as they weighed punitive damages on Monday “$115 million is punishment enough. The verdict already rendered will be financially devastating.”
Countering the claims of Gawker Media, Hogan’s lawyers argued that the firm and its founder, Nick Denton, have plenty of money via Gawker Media’s parent company, an entity known as GMGI.
He claimed that GMGI which owns Gawker’s intellectual property is estimated to be worth $276 million. Denton, by extension, is estimated to be worth as much as $121 million.
But the company’s lawyer argued that GMGI was not a party to the case. And Denton’s net worth minus his stake in the company is only $3.6 million.
On the other hand, the editor of Gawker, AJ Daulerio, who is the third party in the case is in debt of thousands of dollars as he has taken a student loan.
Hogan in court
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