Conservative TV company Newsmax has seen its stock market valuation surge by more than 2,200% since its debut in New York on Monday.
The US firm’s shares, which were originally priced at $10 (£7.75) each, stood at $233 at the end of Tuesday’s trading session.
That means it has a market value of almost $30bn, which surpasses Fox Corp – the owner of rival Fox News – and other media giants Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global.
Newsmax is seen as friendly to US President Donald Trump and was promoted by him during his first term in the White House.
The share price surge has made Newsmax’s founder and chief executive, Christopher Ruddy, one of the richest people in the US, with a net worth of more than $9bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Analysts said retail investors drove gains, drawing comparisons to the soaring price of GameStop.
The video game retailer’s popularity among some investors during the pandemic helped coin the idea of meme stocks.
The meme-stock phenomenon was part of a wider increase in trading by retail investors – people not working for investment houses or other private firms.
Newsmax was founded in 1998 as an online platform. It launched its cable news channel in 2014.
Its ratings were boosted in 2020 when it was endorsed by Trump, who had become increasingly angry at Fox News.
Mr Ruddy, who is a friend of Trump, insisted at the time that he did not want Newmax to become “Trump TV”.
Earlier this month, Newsmax paid $40m to settle allegations that it defamed voting machine company Smartmatic by reporting false claims that it helped rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
It is the latest company with ties to conservatives to start selling shares on the stock market, joining Canada-based video platform Rumble Inc and President Trump’s media venture, Trump Media & Technology Group.
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