SAN FRANCISCO — Billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is calling upon media outlets to support Gawker's effort to appeal a $140 million judgment 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, investor Peter 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.'"
But Silicon Valley's position on the Thiel-Gawker fight is far from united.
While Omidyar stepped up his support, Vinod Khosla – co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of venture capital firm Khosla Ventures — tweeted, "click bait journalists need to be taught lessons. Far less ethics and more click chasing in press today. I'm for #theil."
David McClure, founder of 500 Start-ups, a start-up accelerator, backed Khosla in the same Twitter conversation: Gawker founder Nick "Denton sure as hell could use some ethics lessons," he wrote. He also wrote: "Denton wrapping himself in flag of free speech / self-appointed defender of 4th Estate has gotta be biggest crock of s-- i've ever heard."
The case, which revolved around First Amendment issues, has now morphed into a public row between high-tech billionaires, where personal histories are intertwined with publicly stated principles.
In bankrolling Hogan, Thiel cited 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. Omidyar's First Look Media describes itself as a "a new-model media company devoted to supporting independent voices."
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 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, now Denton has a billionaire in his corner.
Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava
