Hulk Hogan has some pretty big Silicon Valley muscle backing him in his legal battle against Gawker Media, according to Forbes.
The site reports that PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is footing the legal bill for the former wrestler, aka Terry Bollea, who won more than $115 million in a Florida jury trial in March after claiming Gawker violated his privacy in 2012 when it published a sex tape involving him and the now-estranged wife of a friend. The report emerges a day after Gawker founder Nick Denton told The New York Times that he suspected a Silicon Valley financier might be serving as a benefactor for the former wrestler.
Denton and Thiel have a history of animosity stretching back at least a decade. In 2007, Denton's Gawker attempted to out Thiel, who is gay, before he was open about his sexuality. Two years later, Thiel told PEHub that Gawker's now-defunct Valleywag was "the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda."
A Thiel representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.