Nick Denton founder of Gawker talks with his legal team in court in St Petersburg Florida Thomson Reuters Gawker founder Nick Denton will file for personal bankruptcy on Monday to protect himself from Hulk Hogan's $140 million judgment.

Denton confirmed the filing on Twitter on Monday after the publication of reports from Law360 and Politico.

The news comes after a judge in Florida denied Denton's request for an emergency order to stop Hogan from collecting while Denton appeals, according to the New York Daily News. Hogan can begin collecting "immediately."

Denton is personally liable for $10 million of the judgment and jointly liable for an additional $115 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"On this bitter day for me, I am consoled by the fact that my colleagues will soon be freed from this tech billionaire's vendetta," Denton wrote in a tweet.

Gawker Media

Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 in June in a move that allowed Gawker to avoid having its assets seized while it continued to appeal the verdict.

"Even with his billions, Thiel will not silence our writers," Denton said in a tweet at the time. "Our sites will thrive — under new ownership — and we'll win in court."

Gawker has since continued to publish, pay its staff, and appeal the verdict.

Gawker has also been put up for auction. Denton tweeted on Monday that the sale would close in "the next few weeks." The publisher Ziff Davis had made an opening bid to buy Gawker for $90 million. Ziff Davis, which is now helmed by Vivek Shah, the former Time Inc. executive, owns and runs a portfolio of publications including IGN, PCMag, and AskMen.

The money Gawker gets from the auction will go into a fund that will be used for future legal costs and any eventual damages, according to The Journal. If any money is left after the litigation concludes (i.e., if Gawker wins), it will go to Denton as well as Gawker's investors.

The case

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was awarded $140 million in damages in March stemming from a Gawker news article published in 2012 that included a clip of him having sex.

It was revealed in late May that billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel had secretly financed the lawsuit and others against Gawker Media to try to put the website out of business.

"I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest," Thiel, whom Gawker reportedly outed as gay in 2007, told The New York Times.

Gawker Media was handed a legal loss in May when a judge in Florida denied Gawker's motion for a new trial. That meant the damages would not be reduced. The judge also denied Gawker's request for a stay.