The exit of Tucker Carlson, one of Fox News’ most popular prime-time hosts, has cost the channel’s parent company more than $500 million in market value, according to trading data.
Class A shares of Fox Corporation dropped as much as 5.4% on Monday before paring losses to 2.95%. The decline occurred shortly after the company announced plans to part ways with Carlson with immediate effect after more than a decade.
Carlson’s departure came several days after the broadcaster agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The firm had previously sued the network for defamation in a Delaware court, alleging that Fox presenters including Carlson had promoted “baseless” claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Neither Fox nor Carlson revealed the reasons behind the break-up. The network only said that last Friday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which attracted a nightly audience of more than 3.7 million, was the last, and that a newscast will be aired in its time slot from Monday evening.
Speculation over Carlson’s next landing spot sent shares of Rumble, the Peter Thiel-backed conservative video network, and Digital World Acquisition, the special-purpose acquisition company merging with Trump Media, surging. Rumble rallied 6%, while Digital World gained 2.9%.