Staple Street Capital LLC acquired a roughly 76% stake in the voting technology company in 2018 for $38.8 million, unaware that Denver-based Dominion would become a household name within just a few years for all the wrong reasons — falsely accused by former President Donald Trump and his allies for rigging the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.

Dominion sued Fox for defamation, seeking $1.6 billion in damages, but settled for about half that amount Tuesday, just as opening statements were about to be presented at trial. During pre-trial exchange of evidence, Fox uncovered what turned out to be a prescient text message a former employee sent to Dan Franklin, a vice president at Staple Street, commenting on the Dominion lawsuit.

"Would be pretty unreal if you guys like 20x'ed your Dominion investment with these lawsuits," said the message, which was cited in a court filing.

The estimate was pretty close. Staple Street's share of the settlement, assuming it had made no additional equity investments since 2018, would be $598.5 million, or 1,542% more than it paid for its stake in the company. According to its website, Staple Street has about $900 million under management.