“This decision undermines the foundation of the ability of Gawker Media's employees to do our work. “Univision's first act on acquiring the company was to delete six true and accurate news stories from our archive, because those stories had been the targets of frivolous or malicious lawsuits,” the statement reads. On Monday, Gawker’s editorial staff - which is represented by the Writers Guild of America-East - released a statement condemning Univision’s removal of the posts. In a vote on Friday night, Fusion Media Group COO Felipe Holguin (acting as Gawker’s interim CEO) and general counsel Jay Grant (acting as Gawker’s interim general counsel) voted to delete the posts, while executive editor John Cook voted against the deletions. (The seventh post was edited to remove a photo that potentially infringed on a copyright.) The six posts were deleted in accordance with Gawker’s union contract, which allows the company to remove posts with a majority vote of Gawker’s CEO, general counsel and executive editor. Univision determined that the seven ongoing lawsuits constituted liabilities it was unwilling to shoulder.
Six posts were the subject of pending defamation lawsuits against Gawker, one was involved in a copyright complaint and the rest were the subject of legal threats and cease-and-desist orders. “It would not have been possible to do the deal if Univision inherited the lawsuits against Gawker,” Lee said.Īfter the auction, Gawker Media presented Univision with a list of about a dozen posts that it considered legally risky. The six sites were added to Fusion Media Group, Univision’s digital media division. Univision ultimately decided not to acquire Gawker’s controversial flagship site, but did agree to acquire Gawker’s other six sites - Jezebel, Deadspin, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Jalopnik and Kotaku - but only on the condition that it not assume Gawker’s legal liabilities. Univision’s board of directors was only willing to acquire Gawker’s assets if it would not inherit any of the pending lawsuits against Gawker. The bankruptcy mitigated some of that risk - as POLITICO reported in June, the Chapter 11 process is supposed to allow a company to sell its assets “free and clear” of all liabilities - but not all of it. Gawker, which was forced into bankruptcy after it lost a $140 million invasion of privacy case, was a very risky buy. Univision was one of only two bidders for Gawker’s assets in a bankruptcy auction last month.
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