[Update 8/17/2016: Univision has officially purchased Gawker and all of their assets for $135 million]
[Original article:] Kotaku could be joining under the IGN umbrella soon, if the most recent reports about the bidding on Gawker’s assets are to be believed. According to Bloomberg IGN’s parent company, Ziff Davis, along with Univsion are said to be only two major conglomerates bidding on Gawker’s assets.
Previously Ziff Davis had sought to purchase Gawker’s various blogs, including but not limited to Jezebel, Gizmodo and Kotaku, for $90 million. Given the fact that the value of the Gawker brand has likely could decreased from June to August given that some staff departed from their blogs and they’ll likely continue to lose viewers and content during the transition, one has to wonder if Ziff Davis scaled back to a more modest figure compared to their June offer?
According to Advertising Age, Jezebel was picked out amongst the group for $10 million by upstart LittleThings.
According to LittleThings CEO Joe Speiser, the bid for Jezebel came in after the final bids on Monday at 5pm EST. However, Speiser believs that $10 million is $10 million and that Jezebel has been living for too long under the harrowing shadow of the Gawker brand, telling Advertising Age…
“I’d be surprised if it wouldn’t be. $10 million is still $10 million. Until it’s all sold, every bid is in play.”
[…] “Jezebel is a fantastic brand, and I think it’s been living under the shadow of Gawker for too long,”
According to Bloomberg, Gawker wants to sell everything together without splitting up the brands. Part of the bid will also include Gawker founder joining as a consultant with a $200,000 annual salary and a two year non-compete clause, which could keep the mogul from rinsing and repeating the tabloid paradigm for at least two years.
Advertising Age stated that Speiser noticed a lack of interest in Gawker’s assets, with the publication writing…
“LittleThings is only interested in acquiring Jezebel, Mr. Speiser said. But he was surprised by what he deemed a tepid show of interest in Gawker Media’s assets.”
Even though Denton may not want to split up the brands, if the bids from Ziff Davis or Univsion aren’t high enough it’s possible they may just have to bite the bullet and accept liquidating assets piecemeal.
Gamers are biting their nails trying to figure out exactly what’s going to happen with Kotaku and whether it will continue to be a villain in the rogue gallery of video games journalism or if will be brought into a new regime that puts gamers first. Could Kotaku finally be made an ally of #GamerGate instead of an enemy?
