SAN FRANCISCO - Billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is calling upon media outlets to support Gawker's effort to appeal a $140 million judgement that could bankrupt the media company.
Omidyar's First Look Media is seeking to round up amicus briefs in support of Gawker, which recently lost a lawsuit brought by pro wrestler Hulk Hogan , who claimed his privacy was invaded when the site posted a video of him having sex with a friend's wife in 2012.
On Thursday, Gawker confirmed reports that it was looking into putting itself up for sale.
"The possibility that Gawker may have to post a bond for $50 million or more just to be able to pursue its right to appeal the jury’s verdict raises serious concerns about press freedom," Lynn Oberlander, First Look's general counsel, said in a statement obtained by USA TODAY. "To be clear, this is about press freedom principles upon which our company was founded, and about which we care deeply."
In doing so, Omidyar is throwing down the gauntlet before a fellow tech titan, investorPeter Thiel , who on Wednesday confirmed reports that he had funded Hogan's legal effort to the tune of $10 million.
A New York Post article that first reported First Look's amicus news Friday quoted an unnamed source saying there was "bad blood" between the two billionaires, given Omidyar's liberal bent and Thiel's libertarian stance that has him supporting Donald Trump .
On Friday, Omidyar tweeted "I've never met Peter, respect his work as vc, and obv disagree on Trump and Press. 'There is no 'bad blood.'"
In bankrolling Hogan, Thiel cited a his longtime animosity toward Gawker, which had reported that he was gay and had written what Thiel considered to be unsavory things about fellow Silicon Valley friends.
In an interview with The New York Times late Wednesday, Thiel said "It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence. I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest.”
Thiel, who is worth $2.7 billion, was a co-founder of PayPal , which was purchased by eBay in 2002.
Omidyar, who is worth $7.7 billion, has long been passionate about journalism and issues of press freedom. He helped fund Spotlight, the Oscar-winning story of Boston Globe reporters uncovering pedophile priests.
Oberlander notes that First Look and other media outlets - including CNN and the Associated Press - intervened early in the Hogan case in order to "seek access to the courtroom and to unseal some of the myriad documents in the case that had been kept from the public."
After a jury denied Gawker founder Nick Denton 's motion for a new trial Wednesday, First Look decided to step forward and appeal to fellow media outlets in an effort to turn the issue into a First Amendment rights case.
On Thursday, Denton penned a long online letter to Thiel. "Now you show yourself as a thin-skinned billionaire who, despite all the success and public recognition that a person could dream of, seethes over criticism and plots behind the scenes to tie up his opponents in litigation he can afford better than they," he wrote.
On Friday, Denton took to CNBC to blast Thiel's "vindictive" campaign, and cautioned about the "power of the billionaire class." Although he now has one in his corner.
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