Valuetainment - “They Need a Real CEO” - Daily Wire Raises $100m to Considers IPO

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00:00:30.000 Daily Wire has been getting stomped on by everybody left and right the last 30, 60, 90 days.

00:00:34.800 They're losing people.

00:00:35.960 People are quitting.

00:00:36.760 They're doing this.

00:00:37.420 They're doing that.

00:00:38.020 And then yesterday's story comes out that Daily Wire, under pressure, seeks strategic investors, targets IPO.

00:00:46.360 I think they raised $100 million yesterday at a valuation of $2 billion, if I'm not mistaken.

00:00:51.600 And the numbers came out.

00:00:52.840 If you want to go a little bit lower on these numbers, showing the fact that they have.

00:00:55.600 Let me just read this.

00:00:56.520 in talks to take at least $100 million investment,

00:00:58.920 initial public offering in a few years.

00:01:00.360 The company, which was founded by Ben Shapiro in 2015,

00:01:04.540 has been in talks with Highmount Capital to lead a funding round

00:01:07.380 that would value the company at $750 million,

00:01:11.340 according to documents reviewed by Semaphore.

00:01:13.920 The Daily Wire, which is trying to take on New York Times from the right,

00:01:17.800 privately disclosed that it notched $48 million in EBITDA last year,

00:01:22.020 but it just failed to grow its subscriber base and to keep ones in.

00:01:25.120 And it has paying and documents show go a little bit lower.

00:01:28.320 The bankers said, the company bankers said,

00:01:29.900 it has fielded buyout offers above a billion dollars,

00:01:33.020 but the Daily Wire founders prefer to take minority aligned investment

00:01:36.200 to grow the business according to the documents.

00:01:38.100 Those bankers said a $2 billion IPO could be achievable within 18 months.

00:01:41.920 So $750 million valuation, and then they go to $2 billion when they go public.

00:01:45.640 The company parted ways with Jeremy Boring.

00:01:47.420 We just had him on a couple weeks ago.

00:01:48.740 We had a great conversation.

00:01:49.620 So, Ilan, where are you at with this?

00:01:52.720 Is this it, by the way, subscribership?

00:01:54.120 Let's just look at this real quick.

00:01:55.880 Revenue has slowed or contracted.

00:01:57.660 This is subscriptions.

00:01:59.000 In 2021, they grew 151%.

00:02:01.260 In 2022, they went up 80%.

00:02:04.080 2023, 8%.

00:02:05.380 2024, 10%.

00:02:06.680 25, down 26.

00:02:08.300 They're down 16%.

00:02:09.500 Advertising up 22, 22, down 17, down 3, down 5, up 14.

00:02:14.320 Is there any other data that you want to show outside of that?

00:02:16.960 And what is this?

00:02:17.920 Daily Wire subscribership from 257 in 2020 to 558. 0.99

00:02:22.780 I think that $558 to $1 million, that's what is a woman of a— 0.75

00:02:27.280 Which was huge. 0.92

00:02:28.040 Which was massive.

00:02:28.980 Matt Walsh, $2 million, $1 million, $2 million, $260,000, $850,000, $771,000.

00:02:34.820 Some would say $771 is still a solid number to have today.

00:02:39.120 Elon, your thoughts on this story?

00:02:40.280 One thing that Daily Wire did, which is very smart, is it always focused heavily on its subscription model.

00:02:44.800 I think the trend is what matters.

00:02:46.220 We don't yet know if it's going to continue trending down.

00:02:48.540 I think when you look there, you see they go from 1.26 million to 852,000 to 771,000.

00:02:55.100 There's clearly a decline from their peak, which is worrisome.

00:02:59.160 But again, they have a very strong business because they've always put resources behind the subscription model.

00:03:04.720 I do think there's trends to things.

00:03:06.640 I think Daily Wire has lost a lot of its kind of, you know, that flair that it used to have.

00:03:11.120 I think now they're starting to get to a foundational base.

00:03:13.540 So if that can stay steady, I don't know how they're going to grow it from there.

00:03:16.940 That's my concern with Daily Wire.

00:03:19.080 I don't imagine that this is suddenly going to trend upward.

00:03:21.440 So if you're trying to value a company, listen, $50 million on EBITDA on a subscription-based model, what are you going to give?

00:03:27.260 What kind of valuation do you give on a company like that with expectations that you give 5x on?

00:03:31.940 First of all, $50 billion on EBITDA is respectable.

00:03:34.760 It's incredible.

00:03:35.540 That's what I'm saying.

00:03:36.260 It's amazing.

00:03:36.600 You've got a $50 million EBITDA.

00:03:37.600 No, I'm saying.

00:03:38.160 Investors are looking.

00:03:38.980 This is what I would do if I had Daily Wire.

00:03:40.680 So we were approached at one point by a $20 billion fund to do a roll-up and buy five of them.

00:03:47.800 And they had interest of me running the entire roll-up at the top.

00:03:50.940 And, Tom, we had extensive – when was this, by the way, the conversations that we had?

00:03:54.600 I think it was exactly two years ago at Four Seasons on the Beach on the conference room.

00:03:59.380 Yeah, something like that when we had these meetings.

00:04:01.060 This was – yeah, something like that.

00:04:02.620 I think exactly two years ago.

00:04:03.660 But I'm talking about the other fund guys that came here that we sat down in the kitchen and we had the conversations.

00:04:07.680 You know who I'm talking about upstairs.

00:04:08.840 That's who I'm talking about.

00:04:10.020 And I think that was like 12 months ago or nine months ago, something like that.

00:04:13.540 But let me tell you what's going to happen.

00:04:15.160 What they need is a real operator.

00:04:17.800 That's what they need.

00:04:19.040 They need a real operator.

00:04:20.120 If they get a real operator that's willing to come and operate this, not advertising, not interested.

00:04:25.540 All I'm saying is if they get a real operator that comes in and is willing to operate this, has the experience, knows how to handle being under fire, and they come up with some good ideas.

00:04:36.900 Remember, this story is going to lead into the next one of Google putting the money into A24.

00:04:41.200 So there is that possibility.

00:04:43.160 The market's looking for something like that.

00:04:45.120 The market would like a second option to Fox as a competitor, specifically for conservatives.

00:04:50.520 But if they don't bring the right people, then they're going to have a challenge there.

00:04:53.100 Humberto, your thoughts?

00:04:53.940 Can I disagree a little bit?

00:04:55.440 We saw, I mean, you see people, I was driving down the street the other day, and I saw a guy driving a Tesla.

00:05:01.020 All right?

00:05:01.260 He's driving the car, and he has a sticker on the back.

00:05:03.780 It's like, I bought this before Elon was there.

00:05:05.720 All right?

00:05:06.340 But the guy, the Daily Wire, relies on Ben Shapiro as the head of the company.

00:05:10.320 That's what I was going to say.

00:05:11.160 So Elon can say things and can sell other things at the same time.

00:05:15.640 When you are selling what you're saying, it's very difficult to keep the company afloat.

00:05:20.320 You know what I mean?

00:05:21.380 Tom, you will remember the BuzzFeed IPO case.

00:05:25.380 I think they went public through SPAC, and it was an absolute disaster.

00:05:30.280 So it plummeted.

00:05:31.820 So keeping this content outfit, especially when you're in the political space, I wouldn't put my money on it.

00:05:38.560 You know what I mean?

00:05:39.680 No disrespect.

00:05:40.700 I respect Daily Wire.

00:05:41.780 I think they do a tremendous job.

00:05:43.080 I think their business model works for them.

00:05:45.520 But is it enough to go public?

00:05:47.440 I don't know, Pat.

00:05:48.360 Well, I think there's two.

00:05:49.240 Okay, sorry.

00:05:49.620 I'm just going to finish this with this.

00:05:50.720 There's two problems.

00:05:51.260 Number one, Ben Shapiro is heavily connected to the value of the company.

00:05:54.060 So you have an individual who if they, for any reason, goes.

00:05:57.820 How much of it do you think?

00:05:58.440 What percentage do you think is tied to Ben Shapiro?

00:05:59.540 From what I know from people, he's responsible for the overwhelming majority of the subscription.

00:06:04.720 Ben Shapiro stops creating content next three years.

00:06:06.980 What happened to Daily Wire?

00:06:09.460 It's decimated.

00:06:10.460 You think so?

00:06:11.100 Absolutely.

00:06:11.540 I don't think so.

00:06:12.260 I 100% believe that.

00:06:13.700 I think a percentage will be decimated.

00:06:16.620 I think a percentage will be decimated.

00:06:18.960 I don't know if it'll be – I don't know if it's going to be out, period.

00:06:23.160 And by the way, that is the challenge today.

00:06:25.120 When I had Jeremy Borenk here two weeks ago, it's a different era.

00:06:29.540 To be an operator and a talent, but we're in that era.

00:06:33.380 Yeah.

00:06:33.640 Like, you know, a lot of guys back in the days, Ted Turner was not a talent.

00:06:38.840 Ted Turner was a what?

00:06:40.140 Just an operator.

00:06:41.280 He was a guy on the back end.

00:06:42.520 So you didn't hear his opinion.

00:06:44.460 You were hearing the news.

00:06:46.160 And he and his book, if you've ever read the book, They Call Me Ted,

00:06:48.960 which I think Shapiro needs to read if he hasn't already.

00:06:52.800 When you read that book, you'll see how different it was the way they built it.

00:06:56.520 I do think they have a chance, but we'll see.

00:06:59.040 They have a lot of enemies, and a lot of times when you have enemies,

00:07:02.100 you know who's going to get tested?

00:07:03.220 The individual is going to get tested.

00:07:04.580 The part that you've got to respect about what they're doing here is the

00:07:07.420 following.

00:07:08.100 I like that they're just wanting to take minority positions. 0.56

00:07:11.780 I like that it's only minority positions because when you're taking

00:07:14.260 minority positions, what are you saying to the market?

00:07:16.980 We're going to survive.

00:07:18.200 We believe in what we're going to do.

00:07:20.480 If they came in and they're like, no, hey, you know, get it.

00:07:25.240 We want out.

00:07:26.200 That's a different story.

00:07:27.520 Snyder, your thoughts.

00:07:28.660 That's exactly where I was going to go.

00:07:30.320 The fact that they're only soliciting minority investors tells me

00:07:34.280 that they think that there's a pathway forward here.

00:07:36.440 They just need some liquidity to get through the rough patch

00:07:38.480 and that maybe there's some growth someplace else.

00:07:40.700 But I also agree with you guys.

00:07:42.120 It is top-heavy, extremely top-heavy.

00:07:44.800 Who else do you know from the Daily Wire?

00:07:46.220 I mean, Matt Walsh.

00:07:47.240 Yeah, but Michael Knowles.

00:07:48.780 Those two are good.

00:07:49.700 Not comparatively to Matt Walsh.

00:07:52.260 Nowhere near.

00:07:52.860 In terms of this, like, if you look at the amount of views

00:07:55.960 that Ben Shapiro commands and commanded,

00:07:58.300 in terms of even Matt Walsh's and Michael Knowles' views,

00:08:02.340 exists as a byproduct of Ben Shapiro.

00:08:04.160 I don't think you realize the impact and the following that Ben Shapiro has.

00:08:07.240 What case study would you give to this, Tom?

00:08:09.080 Compared to a case study, Mr. Beast, who just brought up the former CEO,

00:08:14.340 is it SoftBank? Not SoftBank.

00:08:16.160 Who was Mr. Beast's brand CEO?

00:08:19.280 Can you go pull that up to see Mr. Beast's company's new CEO?

00:08:23.100 He brought the new CEO.

00:08:25.600 Yeah, that guy right there.

00:08:26.560 Jeffrey Hausenhold, who came former tech executive, venture capitalists,

00:08:32.140 previously CEO of Shutterfly, was brought on board to help scale Mr. Beast's business.

00:08:36.140 By the way, last year they did $400 million.

00:08:39.020 This, 2025, they did $882 million.

00:08:42.380 Yesterday, Forbes put on a list the top 40 biggest content creator earners.

00:08:46.540 Do you know how much Mr. Beast made last year?

00:08:48.200 Did you guys see the number?

00:08:49.540 Can you pull that up?

00:08:50.240 For Forbes top content creator earners, Mr. Beast made $300 million from creating content.

00:09:00.480 He was number one on that list.

00:09:02.220 No, that's not true.

00:09:02.920 That's 2025.

00:09:04.000 He was number one on that list right there.

00:09:05.620 There you go.

00:09:06.340 He was number one on that list.

00:09:08.340 Go to number one.

00:09:09.540 Go a little bit lower so we can see the ranking.

00:09:11.920 Zoom in a little bit if you could to see Mr. Beast at $300 million.

00:09:15.360 He ended up first at $300 million.

00:09:17.320 Anyways, it's all over the place.

00:09:18.320 If you look for it, you'll find it.

00:09:19.440 So, but to me is what Mr. Beast did is they went and got a real CEO.

00:09:24.840 If Daily Wire is going to do anything, they need to spend the money and get a real CEO.

00:09:29.680 So when Jeremy Boring stepped down, they brought another guy named Caleb, who's one of the three partners, co-founders of Daily Wire.

00:09:35.880 And then the current CEO, I believe, is their, that's the guy, Mike Richards, who's the Jeopardy guy that just came in.

00:09:42.720 I don't know how good this guy is.

00:09:43.980 Maybe he is a good guy, but you need a real operator CEO to come in and get things done.

00:09:48.140 Tom, final thoughts to you before we move on.

00:09:50.200 So this is what I look at.

00:09:51.940 People look at the value.

00:09:53.020 $2 billion valuation?

00:09:55.100 Oh, my gosh.

00:09:56.280 You know, the nominal, let's see, $50 million in EBITDA.

00:09:59.180 Nominal values in digital media are $15.

00:10:01.660 I checked that this morning.

00:10:04.160 And then for high growth, Pat, top 20% high growth, you know what the range is?

00:10:09.520 20 to 35X.

00:10:11.040 Wow, that's crazy.

00:10:12.020 So that's the, but that's, you know who that is?

00:10:13.880 High growth.

00:10:14.720 They're not high growth anymore.

00:10:15.420 They're on trending down.

00:10:16.620 That's the problem.

00:10:17.380 So guess what? When you see that the multiples in market do not add up to the deal here, and I hear the word minority, I said, oh, guess what they did? 0.77

00:10:28.140 They got $100 million from somebody on a venture-based valuation, which is the kind of valuations – thank you, Jeff, for nodding.

00:10:35.820 It's the kind of valuations that we were seeing in perplexity and we were seeing in Anthropic last Christmas where they go $200 billion, $250 billion, $500 million.

00:10:47.600 Remember those valuations?

00:10:48.640 Those are venture.

00:10:49.560 So they went out and they did a venture round.

00:10:51.700 This won't make sense on a P.E. basis because it's not.

00:10:54.880 The economics are if you want to come in, it's a $2 billion valuation.

00:10:59.500 Yeah, with 50 in EBITDA, that sounds like 40X, but this is venture value.

00:11:04.160 Pat, would you like a minority position or would you not?

00:11:06.720 Well, actually, I'd like a minority position.

00:11:08.660 That's my terms.

00:11:10.260 Are you still driving it?

00:11:11.480 Yes, I'm still driving it.

00:11:12.860 Okay, I'll go in.

00:11:14.740 I'll do 100 on 2B.

00:11:16.580 Okay, so while we do this, let's play a game.

00:11:18.500 Let's play a game.

00:11:19.320 Yeah, right here.

00:11:19.860 Go to the top of it.

00:11:20.800 Mr. Beast, at the top, Leeds Forbes 226 creator list with $300 million in earnings.

00:11:27.680 Okay, so 100% of Mr. Beast's brand is tied to who?

00:11:31.120 To Mr. Beast.

00:11:32.020 Okay, 100%.

00:11:32.920 what percentage of a daily wire you think is tied to Ben Shapiro?

00:11:36.540 Percentage.

00:11:37.800 Percentage.

00:11:38.460 60. 0.98

00:11:38.960 I would have put it higher.

00:11:39.840 I would have put it at 70.

00:11:40.640 I'm at 50.

00:11:41.520 You're at 60.

00:11:42.320 We're about the same place.

00:11:43.340 You're putting it at 80?

00:11:44.360 75.

00:11:44.920 Where are you at with it?

00:11:45.960 80.

00:11:46.480 80% is the same.

00:11:47.340 Okay.

00:11:47.940 So what do you think happens to daily wire in five years?

00:11:52.440 Go.

00:11:52.880 What do you think?

00:11:53.560 What do you think happens to daily wire?

00:11:54.840 Let's play prediction game.

00:11:56.100 With current trending, I think they get to a lower foundational base.

00:11:59.000 Their subscriber count doesn't keep expanding.

00:12:01.480 I think if they figure out their production, then they'll at least have a model that works there.

00:12:05.620 I think they screwed up heavily there.

00:12:07.200 I'll give you a case study.

00:12:09.260 ABC prepares for Oprah to be leaving for her own network and has to make Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz into bigger assets.

00:12:20.540 And if I'm on the board with that $100 million, I'm going to be like, okay, let's assume Ben loses his popularity over the next five years.

00:12:29.520 And it's just maybe small Ben, like what happened to Howard Stern.

00:12:33.260 Let's say something like that happens.

00:12:35.140 What are we doing with the rest of these brand assets that we have?

00:12:37.980 Michael knows, you know, do you have another idea, Mr. Walsh, another content thing?

00:12:44.180 And I would be encouraging that, just like ABC made a screaming hit out of Dr. Phil and out of Dr. Oz.

00:12:51.420 And then Oprah left and took her show somewhere else.

00:12:54.200 Is it going to equal Ben Shapiro and the drive he has?

00:12:58.020 I don't think so, but that's what I think.

00:13:00.300 That's the bet they're making.

00:13:01.500 The bet they're making is that in five years, they can recover some of the subscription,

00:13:05.920 go to conservatism, and build the assets that are here.

00:13:08.860 That's very plainly on the table what they're doing.

00:13:10.560 So what's your prediction, Tom?

00:13:11.780 My prediction?

00:13:12.620 I think they're going to be able to pull it off because—

00:13:15.080 So where are they at in five years?

00:13:16.280 That still is not an answer.

00:13:17.500 In five years?

00:13:18.080 Where do you think they'll be in five years?

00:13:19.200 I don't think they're going to be around.

00:13:21.040 You don't think they'll be around in five years?

00:13:22.500 That's an extreme.

00:13:23.280 So you're saying they won't be around.

00:13:24.560 Why won't they be around in five years?

00:13:26.580 The thing is that, and if I had to put money on Mr. Beast's IPO or the Daily Wire IPO.

00:13:32.360 They're not in the same league.

00:13:33.560 I will put on.

00:13:34.260 No, no, they're not in the same league.

00:13:35.620 Why, Pat, the formula, all right?

00:13:37.820 Commenting on political news is a well that is running dry lately.

00:13:43.160 You know what I mean?

00:13:43.820 It's under decline.

00:13:45.100 So I'm not saying, like, it's a warning.

00:13:47.080 Like, if they don't invest in thinking about a formula that can take them to the next level,

00:13:52.900 they're not going to be around.

00:13:54.060 So I think the future.

00:13:54.800 that's what their shows are that's what their shows and movies are they tried to move away

00:13:58.440 and it didn't work yeah you're saying for five years they'll be out what are you saying in five

00:14:02.140 years five years it's either they're going to be done or they're going to be extremely successful

00:14:06.060 because they caught lightning in a bottle it's almost like a binary binary it's one of those

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Valuetainment - June 27, 2026

“They Need a Real CEO” - Daily Wire Raises $100m to Considers IPO

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