Move over GameStop—there’s a new meme stock in town.
Conservative media outlet Newsmax IPO’d today, and what a dramatic debut it was. Originally priced at $10 per share, Newsmax opened the day at $14, before skyrocketing during the afternoon. Trading on the stock was halted several times throughout the day due to volatility, and shares finished the day at $82.25, good for a 722.50% single-day climb.
Most of the trading frenzy was fueled by individual investors, according to Bloomberg, who were talking up the stock on Reddit forums and Stocktwits. It certainly wasn’t sparked by anyone looking at the conservative cable news network’s balance sheet.
According to its latest SEC filing, Newsmax posted an operating loss of a little under $56 million in the last six months on revenue of just under $80 million. Today’s public debut should help offset that—with 7.5 million shares selling for $10 a piece, the company already snagged a cool $75 million, and that was before all of today’s meme mayhem.
IPO worries
It may seem like an odd choice for a cable news network to go public in this day and age. Not only is the entire industry in upheaval as new streaming services dismember the old guard, but big advertising budgets are usually dedicated to live sports rather than news—budgets that promise to be the first costs cut in case of an economic downturn. According to SEC documents, advertising accounted for approximately 62% of Newsmax’s revenue over the last six months.
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Recent IPOs probably aren’t giving private companies considering going public any confidence, either. The entire IPO pipeline has cooled as management teams try to suss out what tariffs will do to the economy rather than risk a public debut, while the most recent big-name IPO, CoreWeave, has been met with a shrug by investors as the AI trade wanes.
But Newsmax has one thing going for it that others don’t: A shift right. Conservative fervor has risen following President Trump’s election victory, and Newsmax hopes to ride that wave to profitability. Trump Media & Technology Group has clearly bet on this same idea, with tepid results—shares of the Truth Social parent company are down about 43% year to date.
Still, as today’s wild ride illustrates, Newsmax may not need old fashioned ideas like a fundamentally sound business model or a wave of popular support to succeed—it’s got the power of meme stock traders on its side.—MR