Gawker Media is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Gawker has also hired investment banker Mark Patricof of Houlihan Lokey to review its options, as a high-profile legal fight with wrestler and entertainer Hulk Hogan continues, bankrolled by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
"Everyone take a breath," Gawker, a media brand known for its edgy online content, told CNBC. "We've had bankers engaged for quite some time given the need for contingency planning around Facebook board member Peter Thiel's revenge campaign."
Hogan successfully sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy after it published his sex tape with the ex-wife of a former friend. Later, Gawker posted a tape of Hogan making allegedly racist remarks, spurring another suit.
Thiel has bolstered the battle, financing the lawsuit to "deter" stories that he felt had "no connection with the public interest," according to comments Thiel made to The New York Times.
The suits come as Gawker mounts an internal transition. Last summer, a slew of high-level staff left the company amid backlash over a separate story that tested the boundaries for readers and advertisers.
— Reporting by CNBC's Ryan Ruggiero