Bryan Goldberg
Bryan Goldberg

Bryan Goldberg, a founder of the Bleacher Report and Bustle websites, acquired the assets of the Gawker gossip site in a July 12 bankruptcy auction.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a Goldberg-owned company bid $1.35M, topping the $1.13M bid made by Didit, the Long Island-based marketing services firm.

The Gawker assets include the domain name, social media accounts and a library of 200K published articles.

Goldberg, according to an internal email at Bustle, said he had no immediate plans to re-launch Gawker, but is excited that future possibilities.

Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 in 2016 after it lost a lawsuit by wrestler Hulk Hogan, who was awarded $140M judgement. The case was settled in Chapter 11 for $31M.

Goldberg sold the Bleacher Report to Time Warner in 2012 for $175M.

Univision bought Gawker Media, which included Deadspin, Jezebel, Gizmomo and Gawker, in 2016 for $135M, after it declared Chapter XI.

The Spanish-language broadcaster then transferred Gawker to the bankruptcy court.

Nick Denton launched Gawker in 2003.