Fox News made a huge error when it removed its top star, Tucker Carlson, from the air in late April, and he’s about to make them pay dearly for it.
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According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Carlson has been in talks with billionaires Peter Thiel and Rebecca Mercer to invest in his newly forming company, and both have expressed an interest.
The report comes as Carlson and business partner Neil Patel were looking to “start a new media company that would potentially use Twitter as its backbone.”
“The new company would be anchored by longer versions of the free videos that Carlson has been posting regularly on Twitter since shortly after his departure from Fox News, but would ultimately be driven by subscriptions, some of the people said,” the Journal reported, quoting sources.
Tucker Carlson could see Rebekah Mercer, Peter Thiel invest in his media company https://t.co/Os1hRhP0Uz
— CNBC Politics (@CNBCPolitics) August 8, 2023
“Carlson and Patel are looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the company,” it added.
Per CNBC:
But both of them have privately expressed interest in helping Carlson, said numerous sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The move by Carlson and his team to cultivate potential investors like Mercer and Thiel signals that the former Fox News host’s new project could be on the brink of gaining financial support from some of the nation’s most recognized conservative megadonors.
The news of Mercer’s and Thiel’s interest in Carlson comes as the TV host and his longtime business partner Neil Patel are reportedly looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the company.
Mercer was an investor in Breitbart News, which was founded by the late conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, and the now shuttered right-wing social media site, Parler. Carlson co-founded The Daily Caller, a conservative news site.
Thiel-backed the “anti-woke” bank GloriFi, which reportedly later shutdown, according to The Wall Street Journal.
He’s also financing The Right Stuff, a dating app meant for conservatives which is reportedly struggling to gain a large amount of users. Thiel also appeared on Carlson’s show on Fox News in 2019.