Investors approved a deal on Friday to make Truth Social owner former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social Media a publicly traded company, according to reports by CNN.
The development came after investors of a shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corp, approved a merger worth about $5.7 billion with Trump’s firm, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG).
Shareholders voted on Friday on a merger to take the platform public. Trump’s social media company will likely merge with Digital World Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The new company will be called Trump Media & Technology Group and trade under Trump’s initials, DJT. According to the outlet, shareholders voted to approve Trump Media’s merger with a blank check company following years of legal and regulatory obstacles.
Trump will own a dominant stake in a public company, with shares worth more than $3 billion at current market prices. According to a news outlet, Trump owns 60% of TMTG. He stands to get $3 billion from the deal, which will double his wealth from the current $2.6 billion estimate by Forbes magazine in October 2023.
However, the former president may be unable to cash out from the merger immediately unless the company’s board changes to a lock-up provision that prevents company insiders from selling newly issued shares for six months.
According to the Washington Post, Trump would have to hold his shares for six months before he could sell any of them unless Digital World Acquisition waives.
However, if the agreement were waived, the potential of the company’s largest stockholder dumping his holdings could tank the stock price.
Truth Social was launched in early 2022, soon after Trump was banned on Facebook and X following his role in the Jan 6 U.S. Capitol attack. The social media platform aimed to connect the former president with his support base.
According to a local media outlet, Trump revealed on Friday that he has nearly $500 million in cash, following assertions from his legal team that he lacks sufficient funds to comply with the $464 million fine imposed on him and his co-defendants in a civil fraud case.
“Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president,” Trump wrote in a post in Truth Social on Friday.
