Blog publisher Gizmodo Media Group wants to prevent billionaire investor Peter Thiel from potentially funding defamation lawsuits brought against the media company over articles published in 2016 on the websites Deadspin and Jezebel, the Wall Street Journal reported. To that end, Gizmodo Media is asking a judge to broaden the scope of an agreement between Thiel, his firm Thiel Capital LLC, and an adviser liquidating Gawker Media LLC for the benefit of Gizmodo and its employees, according to a filing on Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The current agreement, signed last month, would prevent Thiel from financing litigation against writers who wrote articles for Gawker.com, a blog that shut down in August 2016 and is set to be sold in bankruptcy. Gizmodo Media, a subsidiary of Univision Communications Inc., operates Gawker Media’s other former blogs, which the company acquired in a bankruptcy auction for $135 million. Gizmodo Media isn’t a party to the agreement between Thiel and Gawker Media.
