Newsmax

The company was first incorporated in Nevada in 1998 as Sequoia Digital Corporation, was renamed Newsmax.com, Inc. in 1999 and became Newsmax Media, Inc. in 2001.⁠[1]

Newsmax began as an online news publisher and launched the television channel Newsmax TV in 2014.⁠[2]

After the 2020 U.S. presidential election, guests, attorneys and elected officials on Newsmax programs made a number of claims about the voting-equipment companies Smartmatic and Dominion. After Smartmatic sent a legal notice demanding retractions, host John Tabacco read an on-air clarification saying the network had not presented those claims as true and had no evidence that the two companies had a business relationship or that their software manipulated votes.⁠[3]

Eric Coomer, Dominion’s director of product strategy and security, sued Newsmax for defamation in Colorado state court on December 22, 2020, and withdrew the suit in April 2021. Newsmax then stated that it had found no evidence that Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or software and apologized for the harm its reporting caused him and his family; his lawyers said the parties reached a settlement whose terms were not disclosed.⁠[4]

In January 2023 Newsmax was dropped by the satellite operator DirecTV after their carriage contract expired. DirecTV said Newsmax’s demanded rate increases would have significantly raised its costs and denied trying to limit conservative programming; Ruddy called the move “a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax,” and some Republican lawmakers also criticized DirecTV.⁠[5]

On March 22, 2023, the two companies announced a multiyear distribution deal, and Newsmax returned to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse the next day; financial terms were not disclosed. DirecTV said the dispute “was always entirely financial,” and Ruddy said DirecTV “clearly supports diverse voices, including conservative ones.”⁠[6]

On November 1, 2023, Newsmax launched the streaming channel Newsmax2 and the streaming subscription service Newsmax+.⁠[1]

In 2024 the company completed a reorganization that created the Florida corporation Newsmax Inc. as the holding company of Newsmax Media.⁠[1]

In September 2024 Newsmax reached a confidential settlement of the defamation suit Smartmatic had brought over coverage related to the 2020 election. An offering document made public in March 2025 showed that Newsmax paid Smartmatic $40 million and offered it 2,000 shares of preferred stock; Smartmatic’s lawyer J. Erik Connolly confirmed the settlement.⁠[7]

On September 5, 2024, Newsmax announced that it had confidentially filed an offering statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under Regulation A+, seeking to raise up to $75 million and planning to apply to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NMAX.⁠[8]

On March 3, 2025, Newsmax announced that its Series B preferred stock placement had closed at its maximum of $225 million in gross proceeds, above the initial $150 million target, with more than 8,000 accredited investors taking part.⁠[9]

On March 28, 2025, Newsmax announced the closing of its Regulation A+ initial public offering, selling 7.5 million shares of Class B common stock at $10 per share for the maximum $75 million, with Digital Offering LLC as lead selling agent.⁠[10]

On March 31 its Class B common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NMAX.⁠[11]

On its first day the stock was halted several times for volatility and closed at $83.51, up 735% from the offering price, for a market value of more than $10.7 billion.⁠[12]

The company uses a dual-class structure: existing shares held by Ruddy and his affiliates became Class A common stock with ten votes per share, while other holders hold Class B common stock with one vote per share.⁠[13]

On April 7, 2025, Newsmax entered a 24-month standby equity purchase agreement with YA II PN, Ltd. (Yorkville), giving it the option but not the obligation to require Yorkville to buy up to $1.2 billion of its shares.⁠[14]

On April 28 Newsmax announced distribution agreements with Cellcom Israel and Telecom Armenia to offer the Newsmax channel to their customers.⁠[15]

On May 9, 2025, Newsmax announced a multiyear distribution agreement with HuluHuluHulu is a U.S. subscription streaming service offering series, films and original programming from the major television networks and studios, along with Hulu + Live TV, which includes live channels. It was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and News Corporation and opened to the public in March 2008; after a series of ownership changes, The Walt Disney Company took operational control in 2019 and full ownership in 2025, and is integrating Hulu into Disney+ as Disney’s global general entertainment brand.Open the full entry + Live TV, expecting the Newsmax channel to launch there in July 2025.⁠[16]

On June 11 the company appointed former Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky as a director and member of the audit committee, which is chaired by former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who had joined the board when the IPO closed in March. The board then had five members, including Ruddy, Nancy Brinker and Christopher Nixon Cox.⁠[17]

Effective at the market open on June 30, Newsmax was added to the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes in FTSE Russell’s annual reconstitution.⁠[18]

On August 15, 2025, Newsmax Media and Newsmax Broadcasting signed a settlement agreement with Dominion Voting Systems and certain affiliates for a total of $67 million: $27 million paid that day and $20 million each due by January 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027.⁠[19]

Dominion had sued Newsmax after the 2020 election, alleging it spread false claims that voting technology was manipulated to help Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump. Judge Eric M. Davis ruled in April 2025 that the statements at issue were false and defamatory, and a trial had been set for October. A Dominion spokesperson said: “We are pleased to have settled this matter.”⁠[20]

Newsmax said the suit had been filed in Delaware Superior Court in 2021 seeking $1.6 billion; the company maintained that its coverage was “fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism” and said the court’s rulings denied it a fair trial.⁠[21]

On August 21, Fubo co-founder and CEO David Gandler joined the Newsmax board.⁠[22]

On September 3, 2025, Newsmax Broadcasting sued Fox Corporation and Fox News Network in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging that Fox used its dominance in right-leaning pay-TV news to exclude or marginalize rivals through its contracts with distributors, and asking the court to declare the conduct unlawful under antitrust law, award damages and issue an injunction.⁠[23]

After Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the complaint as a “shotgun” pleading with leave to amend, Newsmax dropped that case on September 11 and filed a substantially similar suit in federal court in the Western District of Wisconsin, adding a “block-booking” claim. Fox had earlier said: “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace.”⁠[24]

On October 16, 2025, Newsmax announced that its board had authorized purchases of up to $5 million of crypto assets, including bitcoin and Trump Coin, over the next 12 months depending on market conditions.⁠[25]

On December 16, 2025, Newsmax renewed its multiyear agreement with YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry TV, keeping the Newsmax channel in the Base Package, with Newsmax+ due to join YouTube Primetime Channels in early 2026.⁠[26]

On December 29 the company announced that Newsmax was airing on channel 351 of Free in France, channel 204 of HOT in Israel and channel 241 of Primetel in Cyprus, and that it had signed a brand license to launch the Ukrainian-language channel Newsmax Ukraine in the first half of 2026.⁠[27]

On March 19, 2026, David Evans, former chief operating officer of Salem Media Group, joined the Newsmax board, bringing it to seven members.⁠[28]

On March 26 Newsmax announced 2025 revenue of $189.3 million, up 10.7% from $171.0 million in 2024, including $153.3 million from broadcasting; it posted a net loss of $99.5 million, which it attributed largely to about $79 million in legal settlement expenses.⁠[29]

On April 23, 2026, Judge William M. Conley of the federal court for the Western District of Wisconsin granted Fox’s motion to transfer Newsmax’s antitrust suit to federal court in Florida. He noted that Newsmax had dropped its Florida case and refiled a nearly identical complaint in Wisconsin, writing that “this is forum shopping.”⁠[30]

On July 28, 2026, Newsmax announced an AI content partnership under which MetaMetaMeta (Meta Platforms, Inc.) is a publicly listed American technology company, renamed from Facebook in 2021, that operates social communication, digital advertising, virtual reality, smart glasses and artificial intelligence businesses.Open the full entry may draw on Newsmax’s current reporting and archived content.⁠[31]

On August 13, 2026, Newsmax announced second-quarter revenue of $54.1 million, up 16.5% year over year, and net income of $2.9 million, its first profitable quarter as a public company; it ended the quarter with $128.3 million in cash and short-term investments.⁠[32]

Newsmax Inc. is a holding company that wholly owns Newsmax Media, Inc., the parent of Newsmax Broadcasting LLC. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, it operates the Newsmax channel, Newsmax2, the Newsmax App, Newsmax+, Newsmax.com and Newsmax Magazine.⁠[33]

The March 2026 proxy statement shows Ruddy holding all Class A shares through a revocable trust; Conyers Investments LLC and Naples Investment HoldCo, LLC held 20.4% and 18.0% of the Class B shares, and Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al-Thani is sole beneficiary of the trust behind the latter.⁠[34]

Newsmax: Official website: https://www.newsmax.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[35]

Newsmax Inc.: Official website: https://ir.newsmax.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[35]