This is an interesting scenario, that i think Denton is stupid/desperate enough to do. The new owner, will probably have a legal team, and if that legal team is worth their salt, they will go over all acquired information. This is the SOP for a media buyout, and generally any buyout.  This is done to ensure that the contract of sale was done in "good faith". After all, this would be a liability that they were not told about, and this would have affected the deal. Now the beautiful part, is if it looks like stuff was deleted, then this would indicate a violation of good faith, and get the authorities interested.  So basically, if gawker were to sell any of their branches, any shit that was lingering would come out, and get them into trouble.  Now, what i am really interested in, is if the corporate entity was kept intact. If ti comes out that Denton used corporate funds for his own usage, which does sometimes come out with buyouts, then it would cause the corporate veil to be "pierced", and people like hulk hogan and the victim of the black mail attempt can sue Denton directly.