Buyout Firm Stale Street Capital Profits From Fox Settlement

Staple Street Capital Group LLC, the small buyout firm that owns Dominion Voting Systems, has scored a $787.5 million windfall after Fox Corp. settled a defamation lawsuit brought by the voting machine operator, Svea Herbst-Bayliss reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: (l-r) Staple Street Capital co-founders Hootan Yaghoobzadeh and Stephen D. Owens also function as managing directors.

The amount is equivalent to 20 times the $38.3 million the New York-based private equity firm paid in 2018 to acquire a 76.2% stake in Dominion.

Staple Street has $900 million in assets under management, according to its website. The $787.5 million Dominion will receive from Fox in the settlement is about half the $1.6 billion in damages it was seeking in its lawsuit.

Even before Tuesday's settlement, Staple Street's investment in Dominion had been successful. Fox said in a court filing that Dominion was valued at around $226 million in the run-up to the 2020 election, citing exhibits it did not make public.

That was up from the $80 million valuation when the acquisition of Dominion was clinched in 2018.

Investors in the $265 million private equity fund that Staple Street was using for investments when it acquired Dominion include the University of Arizona's endowment, Travelers Insurance and fund-of-funds manager Hauser Private Equity, according to data provider Pitchbook.

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