Background
Denton grew up in Hampstead, the son of British economist Geoffrey Denton and his wife, Marika (née Marton), a Hungarian Jew who survived the Nazis and escaped the Soviet occupation at age 18.
Denton grew up in Hampstead, the son of British economist Geoffrey Denton and his wife, Marika (née Marton), a Hungarian Jew who survived the Nazis and escaped the Soviet occupation at age 18.
He was educated at University College School and University College, Oxford where he studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.
Foreign years after starting Gawker Media in 2002, Denton ran the company out of his apartment in SoHo. Denton has a younger sister, Rebecca. He also became the editor of the university"s magazine.
He began his career as a journalist with the Financial Times.
He co-wrote a book about the collapse of Barings Bank called All That Glitters. Denton owns nine websites, the most popular being Gizmodo - a lifestyle website that centers around gadgets and consumer electronics.
Gizmodo pulls in nearly six million visitors a month. Denton was featured in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007 in position #502 with an estimated wealth of £140m (approximately $205m) based on the sale of his previous companies and the current value of Gawker Media.
Denton lives in New York City.
Peter Thiel
In 2007, Denton"s Valleywag editor, Owen Thomas, outed Silicon Valley businessman, Peter Thiel in a post entitled, "Peter Thiel is totally homo, people." In the comment section of Thomas"s post, Denton speculated as to why Thiel and he ultimately liked keeping "his personal life a secret from journalists.. for so lougitude" He even named "a guy called Mike" as an alleged boyfriend. In response, Thiel called Valleywag the "Silicon Valley Equivalent of First Rate (at Lloyd's) Qaeda". Thiel called out the sites for "scar everybody" and for stifling the culture of Silicon Valley, which is "supposed to be about people who are willing to think out loud and be different."
Christine O"Donnell
On 28 October 2010, he published an anonymous kiss-and-tell piece entitled, "I Had a One-Night Stand with Christine O"Donnell".
However, according to the writer, O"Donnell only slept naked with the anonymous writer and did not have sex with him.
The National Organization for Women condemned the piece as "slut-shaming". National Organization for Women"s president, Terry O"Neill, stated, "lieutenant operates as public sexual harassment.
And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O"Donnell, but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere." Salon"s Justin Elliott criticized the ad hominem nature of the article, tweeting "Today, we are all Christine O"Donnell." Gawker.com reportedly paid in the "low four figures" for the story. Hulk Hogan
On October 4 2012, Gawker published an extract from a leaked sex tape of former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.
After Denton refused to comply with a cease-and-desist order from Hogan and a court injunction to remove the video, Hogan sued Gawker for violation of privacy.
On March 18 2016, the jury found in favor of Hogan and awarded him $115 million, which included $55 million in compensatory damages and $60 million for emotional distress. On March 21, the jury awarded Hogan an additional $25 million in punitive damages, including $10 million from Denton personally.