Nick Denton fires back at Peter Thiel over tech billionaire's Gawker crusade

Thiel acknowledged that he secretly bankrolled lawsuits against the gossip-tinged company and its journalists in order to put the publisher out of business

It may be a post-ink age, but a Silicon Valley billionaire's legal campaign against Gawker Media is about to offer a modern test of the old adage: never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

In a blog post Thursday, Gawker CEO Nick Denton warned PayPal cofounder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel that he will face consequences for trying to take down the gossip-tinged media company and challenged him to a public debate in person or online.