Bryan Goldberg quietly purchased Valleywag in addition to Gawker

Bryan
Goldberg, founder of Bustle Digital Group.
Bustle

• Bryan Goldberg, founder and CEO of Bustle Digital
  Group, purchased Valleywag, the defunct sibling site to Gawker
  Media, according to a person familiar with the matter.
• Goldberg recently acquired Gawker for a reported $1.35
  million to “build upon Gawker’s legacy and triumphs.”
• Gawker is set to relaunch in 2019 and will be housed in
  a separate company from Bustle Digital Group.

Valleywag could make a comeback. 

Bryan Goldberg has acquired the now defunct sibling site to
Gawker  as part of his acquisition of Gawker, according to a
person familiar with the matter. The founder and CEO of Bustle
Digital Group purchased
Gawker in July in a bankruptcy auction for $1.35
million.

Gawker Media launched Valleywag in 2006 as a blog that covered
Silicon Valley gossip and personalities. The site was known
for breaking big, juicy, and often controversial stories about
the technology world.

In 2008, it broke a story about
Gene Simmons’ sex tape leaking online and also reported on a
relationship between Google founder Larry Page and former Yahoo
CEO Marissa Mayer. The site
folded in 2008 before it was relaunched
in 2013 by Sam Biddle.

The site has been dormant since 2015 after
Gawker Media was sued into bankruptcy from a long lawsuit
against Hulk Hogan that was bankrolled by Silicon Valley investor
Peter Thiel. Univision bought Gawker Media for $135 million in
2016 and
began selling off Gawker Media’s assets this summer.

Goldberg won the assets to both Gawker.com and Valleywag.com and plans
to relaunch Gawker early next year. Based on the success of that
launch, Goldberg will decide if and when Valleywag will be
relaunched, according to the person.

Under Goldberg, Gawker will be part of a subsidiary “completely
distinct from our other properties,” according to a memo that
Goldberg sent Bustle Digital Group staffers that
was obtained by Variety. “We won’t recreate Gawker
exactly as it was, but we will build upon Gawker’s legacy and
triumphs — and learn from its missteps,” the memo read.

“In so doing, we aim to create something new, vibrant, highly
relevant, and worth visiting daily.” As part of the Gawker
relaunch, Goldberg has also hired Amanda Hale as the site’s
publisher.