Facebook Reelects Thiel To Board Despite Gawker Controversy

Facebook Inc. reelected all of its board of directors on Monday, including the billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who has been at the center of a controversy related to Gawker Media. The company's entire eight-person board was reelected, including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Thiel's reelection drew the most interest, however, with Facebook and its investors sticking by the PayPal founder - the company's longest standing board member -- despite the fact that he admitted to funding a costly legal battle that led to Gawker's bankruptcy earlier this month. Thiel has referred to the lawsuit, which was filed by Hulk Hogan and funded secretly by Thiel, as a personal vendetta, after Gawker published a story ten years ago that outed him as gay. Shares of Facebook rose 0.3% to $113.37 on Monday. They've risen 37.5% over the last 12 months, outperforming the S&P 500, which is down 1.2%.