Fox's stock slides 4% on news Tucker Carlson is leaving the network

By Ciara Linnane

'FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,' the company said in a terse statement

Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News, according to a statement from the network on Monday that sent Fox shares down 4%.

"FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," the company said in a terse statement. "We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor."

Carlson's last program at the network was broadcast Friday night.

"Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 p.m./ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named," the statement said.

The news comes a week after Fox News parent Fox Corp. (FOXA) settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges. The company agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle the suit, which involved charges that Fox News baselessly accused the company of rigging its voting machines against former President Donald Trump in 2020. It was the most-watched media-libel case in decades, as the Associated Press reported.

Read also: Don Lemon fired by CNN after 17 years with the news network

Carlson was one of several Fox anchors who plugged the accusations on air, while behind the scenes agreeing that they were untrue. Mountains of evidence gathered by Dominion in discovery showed Carlson, as well as anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, did not believe the allegations. Carlson also expressed in a text with colleagues that he "hated Trump passionately."

Messages between Fox News Chief Executive Suzanne Scott, Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, who is chief executive of Fox Corp., showed they were concerned about angering Trump's supporters, who are a major part of the Fox News audience.

See:2020 election 'was not stolen,' Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath, according to evidence in Dominion case

Matthew Tuttle, CEO and chief investment officer of Tuttle Capital Management, said the news is obviously a negative for Fox, as Carlson was a big money maker.

Carlson was one of Fox's most popular anchors and stirred many controversies with his views on such issues as race relations and diversity, equity and inclusion. The 53-year-old had hosted the primetime show "Tucker Carlson Tonight" since 2016.

"Fox looks like it has some more potential downside here," Tuttle told MarketWatch in emailed comments.

Meanwhile, the shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), the special-purpose acquisition company planning to take Trump's media-ventures company public, were up 3.9%, he noted.

"From leaked texts he (Carlson) does not seem to be a fan of Trump, so I would fade the move in that stock," said Tuttle.

See now: What was Tucker Carlson worth to Fox News? About $650 million, according to Wall Street

Carlson is also facing a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former Fox producer has filed a suit against Fox alleging that the network's attorneys forced her to give misleading deposition testimony in an effort to protect the company in the defamation case.

Grossberg, who was fired by Fox after filing the suit, has also alleged that Carlson led a misogynistic and toxic workplace culture.

Fox Corp. and News Corp (NWSA), parent of MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones, share ownership.

Fox's stock has fallen 16% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has fallen 3%.

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-Ciara Linnane

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04-25-23 0729ET

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