Obscene $787.5 Million Settlement With Fox News 'Turns Dominion Into Private Equity Gold'

Staple Street Capital bought Dominion Voting Systems in 2018, with a $38 million equity check and an $80 million enterprise value. It might have been the best private equity deal ever.

[...] By the numbers: Denver-based Dominion will be required to pay taxes on its windfall, plus give a hearty portion to attorneys. But this is still a massive amount of cash for a company of its size.

- Dominion currently generates around $45 million in annual EBITDA, up from $10 million in 2018, according to comments this morning from Staple Street co-founder Hootan Yaghoobzadeh on CNBC.

- In terms of revenue, Forbes once reported that Dominion generated $118.3 million for the three-year period between 2017 and 2019.

- Fox Corp. has just over $4 billion of cash on hand, and may have an insurance policy that helps it defray some of the settlement costs.

Look ahead: Yaghoobzadeh told CNBC that settlement proceeds will be distributed to shareholders, adding that Dominion management and employees "own a very significant stake in the business."

WATCH: Dominion lawyer Davida Brook dodges when asked if employees she says need "closure" will get any cut of $787.5 million Fox News settlement. pic.twitter.com/zzCKy8Aqqa

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) April 19, 2023

In one of the court filings, Fox cited a December 2020 text from a former Staple Street employee to a current executive that proved prescient.

"Would be pretty unreal if you guys like 20x'ed your Dominion investment with these lawsuits," the text read.