Hulk Hogan hits the big boot, drops the big leg and pins Gawker down for the count as he is awarded a provisional $115million (£79million) in his sex tape trial against the website.
It took a Florida jury just 6 hours to decide in Hogan’s favour.
The jury decided the media company seriously violated the WWE Hall of Famer’s privacy by publishing the 1-minute 47-second video of him having sex with Heather Clem, the wife of his former best friend, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. It stands to cost Gawker at least $1.14million per second of footage.
Hulk, 62, was awarded $60million for emotional damages and $55million for economic loss. The jury will decide on Monday what punitive damages the wrestling superstar is entitled to, which means Hogan stands to be awarded even more money.
Potentially, this case could put Gawker out of business. In 2014 the company generated $45 million, and the compensation of at least $115 million would be 3 years worth of revenue that Gawker would need to find.
Gawker say they will appeal the decision, as company Nick Denton issued the following statement:
“Given the key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trail if we had been allowed to present the full case to the jury. That’s why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately”
We’ll continue to update this story as more news becomes available.
UPDATE: On Monday, Hulk Hogan was awarded an additional $25million on top of the $115 he was already awarded. This looks like it could spell the end of Gawker Media.