Newsmax heavily hyped every minor victory in the defamation lawsuit filed against it by Smartmatic — but it was uncharacteristically silent when it reached an out-of-court settlement with the company last fall, though it did eventually concede that Newsmax could be in financial trouble if the court did not agree to the settlement. Now, new details of the settlement have been made public, as Mediaite reported:
When Newsmax quietly settled its defamation lawsuit with Smartmatic last year, the financial details remained hidden from public view. But, as the network prepares to go public, those figures are now out in the open: $40 million and a stock warrant.
The figure is buried in an investment prospectus released this week and discovered by The Independent‘s Justin Baragona.
In the filing Newsmax, disclosed that it agreed to pay Smartmatic $40 million in cash — along with a five-year warrant allowing the tech firm to purchase 2,000 shares of the network’s preferred stock. Newsmax was accused of defaming Smartmatic by broadcasting false claims that the voting machine company played a role in rigging the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
Mediaite also reminded us that Dominion has a pending defamation suit against Newsmax (which netted $787 million from Fox News on similar claims). It also reported that Newsmax is covering its legal settlements from cash on hand and not from its upcoming IPO. Newsmax also stated that “an unfavorable outcome in the matter could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.” On top of that, there’s also “a separate, undisclosed settlement over a breach of contract dispute, with $34.6 million still left to pay.”
None of this has appeared on the Newsmax website, of course — don’t want any bad news interfering with the IPO.