This seems about right. Gawker is a creepy agitprop fake left-wing news site. Putin has a whole portfolio of creepy agitprop fake news sites. It's a match made in the Kremlin.
Gawker Media’s status as one of the largest U.S. media players to be funded entirely by insiders is about to come to an end. Founder and CEO Nick Denton confirmed on Wednesday that he has agreed to sell a minority stake in the company to an investment fund called Columbus Nova Technology Partners.
Gawker hasn’t revealed the size of the stake that Columbus Nova is acquiring, except to say that it’s a minority investment. Columbus Nova is the U.S. investment arm of the Renova Group and owns Rhapsody and several other technology companies, including what used to be Sony Online Entertainment, makers of the game Everquest.
Renova, which was founded by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, is an industrial conglomerate that has investments in the mining, chemical, construction, housing, and financial sectors. Vekselberg’s net worth is estimated at $18 billion.
Viktor Vekselberg is a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. If his name gets added to the sanctions list, I wonder what happens to Gawker.
Of course all of this happened because Gawker's creepiness is exceeded only by its arrogance. The Hulk Hogan lawsuit and cannibalization of the site is comeuppance. And now that there's an investor to answer to, one with multiple tech holdings, Gawker is even more vulnerable to pressure campaigns from Gamergate.