In an eventful and notable development, the Trump Media & Technology Group, famously recognized for its ownership of the social networking site, Truth Social, has announced plans to commence trading on the high-powered Nasdaq stock market from Tuesday onwards.
This development comes in the wake of the Digital World Acquisition Corp. merger, a publicly traded shell company that announced its decision to merge with former President Donald Trump’s media business in a decisive shareholder vote held last Friday. However, this merger has produced waves of volatility in the stock market, with the shares of Digital World experiencing dramatic fluctuations. The shares took a substantial dip of 13.7% following the announcement of the merger, but managed to rebound with a steep 35.2% increase on Monday to a promising $49.95 per share.
The lion’s share of the newly combined company will be owned by former President Trump, giving him possession of a staggering 79 million shares, valued at close to a hefty $4 billion. However, Trump will find his hands tied when it comes to immediate liquidation of his stake in the Palm Beach, Florida-based company, courtesy of a stringent “lock-up” provision. This measure prevents company insiders from selling their freshly issued shares for a period of six months, unless there are changes made by the company’s board.
This development mirrored another notable event for the former president on Monday, where he attended a hearing in New York concerning his much-publicized criminal hush money case. A separate New York appeals court reduced to $175 million the sum required by Trump to post in cash or bond during the appeal of a significant $454 million civil fraud ruling.
Trump’s social platform, Truth Social, marked its inception in February 2022, precisely one year following Trump’s ban from major platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, post the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Despite being reinstated to both platforms, Trump committed his virtual presence to Truth Social, going as far as promoting it vibrantly on a Friday post by stating, “I love Truth Social.”
An air of mystery surrounding the user numbers of Truth Social is expected to clear soon at least partially, with the company now going public. Estimates by the research firm, Similarweb, suggest that the platform had roughly 5 million active web and mobile users in the first month of its launch. While these numbers may pale in comparison to TikTok’s over 2 billion and Facebook’s 3 billion users, they still place Truth Social ahead of other “alt-tech” rivals like Parler or Gettr.
The first nine months of the previous year saw Trump Media operating under the shadow of a $49 million loss, bringing in a meager revenue of $3.4 million and facing the significant burden of $37.7 million in interest expenses. The common stock of Trump Media & Technology Group is slated to trade under the ticker symbol, “DJT” moving forwards.
