Newsmax celebrated the launch of its IPO by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The network’s founder and CEO Chris Ruddy was joined by other Newsmax talent and staffers to mark the start of the trading day.
Newsmax’s stock opened at $14 a share on Monday, trading under the NMAX ticker symbol. It quickly shot up in value, reaching highs of $239 on Tuesday before settling at $62 a share at the close of the market on Thursday.
At its peak, Newsmax’s market capitalization reached nearly $30 billion more than the market cap of legacy media companies, including Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
“Newsmax drew enormous interest from investors on the opening days of our listing on the NYSE,” the network said in a statement to TVNewser.
“We see that as a positive sign. The stock appears to be settling now still over 5 times our initial market cap for the IPO, another good sign. We have an extremely strong business with a large and growing audience.”
Before its Monday debut, the Class B Common stock had raised $75 million in its initial public offering under Regulation A+ and $225 million in a private Preferred Offering, which closed in February.
Launched in 2014, Newsmax is the fourth most-watched news network. Its conservative bent makes it a competitor for Fox News. During the just-concluded first quarter, the network averaged 305,000 total viewers and 29,000 Adults 25-54 demo viewers during primetime.
During March, Rob Schmitt Tonight was the net’s top show in total viewers, with 486,000 viewers and 40,000 demo viewers.
A regulatory filing prior to Newsmax going public revealed that it paid $40 million to settle its defamation lawsuit with Smartmatic in September.
The filing also revealed that Smartimatic would be able to purchase 2,000 shares of preferred stock of the cable news company through a five-year cash exercise warrant.
