Donald Trump, on paper, is in position to reap several billion dollars after shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Group voted Friday to merge with his social media firm.
The newly merged entity, Trump Media, will include a media business as well as Trump’s social network, Truth Social. It could begin trading next week under the ticker symbol DJT.
Digital World is a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, which is an entity set up expressly for the purpose of engineering a merger. The company has burned through its initial cash reserves over two years, encountering a number of stumbling blocks on the way to Friday’s vote, which removed the final hurdle to the plan to merge and take the stock public.
Even if the new stock goes to the moon, the proceeds will not be available in the short term for Trump or other stakeholders. Typically, there is a lock-up period of six months after an IPO, which is designed to prevent a disruptive sale of shares. The former president is facing a Monday deadline for posting a $464 million bond related to a judgment against him in New York stemming from charges that he overstated the worth of properties and other assets.
Truth Social was started after Trump was booted from Twitter and other social media platforms in the wake of the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. It has posted underwhelming growth since. Trump’s account on Twitter, now known as X, was restored by Elon Musk after he bought the platform in 2022.
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