For nearly 14 years, Nick Denton and Gawker.com have defined Gawker Media.

But over the last several months, a split of some kind between the company, its founder and its flagship site became inevitable: Gawker Media, under financial pressure from a $140 million legal judgment in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan, the former professional wrestler, also encountered a seemingly unbeatable adversary in the form of Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was financing legal efforts against the company. Left with few options, Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy and put itself up for sale in June.

On Thursday, less than 48 hours after Univision’s $135 million bid won an auction for Gawker Media, the bond finally broke. Gawker.com will shut down next week, and Mr. Denton, whose sites pioneered a wry, conversational and brash form of web journalism that would influence publications across the internet, will leave the company.

“Sadly, neither I nor Gawker.com, the buccaneering flagship of the group I built with my colleagues, are coming along for this next stage,” Mr. Denton wrote in a note to the staff on Thursday afternoon shortly after a bankruptcy judge approved the company’s sale to Univision.

The fate of Gawker.com had been the subject of much speculation ever since the Hogan verdict. Still, it was an abrupt outcome after what had been a long period of uncertainty.