Gawker Media founder Nick Denton has begun quietly soliciting bids for the sale of his company, The Post has learned.

Denton hired Houlihan Lokey media banker Mark Patricof to advise him on the valuation of the cash-hungry company in the event that he needs to sell it to pay damages to Hulk Hogan, who was awarded $140 million by a Florida jury after Gawker posted a sex video of the wrestling legend, sources said.

At least one unnamed party has already expressed interest with a deal valued at between $50 million and $70 million, sources said.

Denton owns a 68 percent stake in Gawker after bringing in his first outside investor earlier this year. He sold a minority stake for $100 million to technology firm Columbus Nova Technology Partners, injecting some much-needed cash as the company fought the Hogan suit.

The value of the business was pegged at $250 million around the time of that deal, but that number has since sunk, sources said.

During the Hogan trial, it emerged that Gawker’s annual revenue was $48.7 million in 2015. The initial bid came in at one to 1.5 times revenue.

“The legal costs are being stripped out,” said a source familiar with the sale talks.

While sources couldn’t name the bidder, one possibility is Univision. The Post reported last month that the Spanish-language media giant was eyeing Gawker and had discussed partnering or investing in Denton’s company.

Gawker Media houses the namesake gossip site as well as Jezebel, Gizmodo and Lifehacker.

Earlier this year, Univision acquired a 40 percent stake in The Onion, the satirical site, and has been on a spending spree, snapping up digital properties.

Denton is appealing the March jury judgment in the Hogan case, but so far little has gone his way in the Florida courts.

On Wednesday, St. Petersburg Judge Pamela Campbell denied the gossip site’s motion for a new trial and let stand the massive judgment.

She’s expected to rule next month on Hogan’s request that Gawker, Denton and former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio each put $50 million into escrow pending a final resolution.

“We’ve always said we expect to prevail on appeal and we’ve always said we’re exploring contingency plans of various sorts,” a Gawker spokesman said.

Forbes broke the news on Wednesday that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, still fuming that Gawker’s Valleywag outed him as gay in 2007, was funding Hogan’s legal costs.

Thiel, a PayPal co-founder, acknowledged he was backing Hogan’s suit in an interview with The New York Times.