Fox Corp and Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday for $787.5 million, avoiding a trial that would have put the global media giant in the spotlight for its coverage of false vote-rigging allegations during the 2020 U.S. election.

Legal experts cited the settlement as the largest reached by an American media company. The announcement came at the eleventh hour, with the jury already selected and the trial set to begin in Wilmington, Delaware. Dominion had initially sought $1.6 billion in damages when the lawsuit was filed in 2021.

Dominion CEO John Poulos described the settlement as "historic" and said in a statement, "Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees, and our customers."

The lawsuit centered on whether Fox was responsible for broadcasting false claims that Dominion's Denver-based ballot-counting machines were manipulated to favor Democratic candidate Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.

The settlement spared Fox from having some of its most prominent figures testify, including Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox Corp chairman, and on-air hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro.

Fox anchor Neil Cavuto reported the settlement during his show "Your World," and a statement by Fox was read on air: "We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

Fox Corp shares closed slightly up at $34 per share but fell 1% in after-hours trading following the announcement of the settlement amount. Fox has sufficient cash on hand to cover the settlement and had earmarked $3 billion for share buybacks in Q1 after beating revenue estimates. In February, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch informed Wall Street analysts that the company held roughly $4 billion in cash.

Dominion lawyers did not comment on whether Fox News would issue a public apology or make any changes.

Richard Tofel, principal of Gallatin Advisory, said the $787.5 million settlement was the largest amount paid to settle an American media libel case, surpassing the $177 million paid by Walt Disney Co in 2017 to settle the "pink slime" defamation case against its ABC network by Beef Products Inc.