Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp. will vote on Friday on whether to merge with former President Donald Trump’s media group.
Former President Donald Trump could soon receive a windfall valued as much as $3.5 billion, with shareholders of a publicly traded funding partner voting Friday on whether to merge with his Trump Media & Technology Group.
The vote is taking place about one month after the two companies received to proceed with the long-delayed merger.
If shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) approve, the businesses could combine soon afterward, putting the former president’s Truth Social social media platform on the stock market. Trump created Truth Social as a conservative-focused social media service after he was , now known as X, and other platforms following the January 6th riot.
Digital World is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, a shell company that is created to take a private business public without conducting an initial public offering.
The new company would be renamed Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. and trade under the stock ticker DJT, the same letters as Trump’s initials, according to regulatory filings.
Trump stands to make a fortune from the pending deal, given that he would control 78.8 million shares of the newly merged company, or about 58% of the business. Based on DWAC’s current stock price, that stake could be worth as much as $3.5 billion.
Some of DWAC’s shareholders appear to be Trump followers, as one group on Truth Social includes more than 7,850 users who have been communicating about the stock and its prospects. That raises the possibility that DWAC’s shares are currently getting a lift from Trump’s supporters at a time when Trump is moving closer to securing the GOP nomination for president.
That windfall could land in Trump’s lap at a time when his financial pressures are ratcheting up. For one, Trump’s lawyers have said he’s been to appeal a judgement of more than $460 million in his civil fraud case. If he can’t pony up the money by March 25, New York state could seize property from Trump to satisfy the ruling.
Trump is also facing hefty legal bills in the other court cases against him, including more than $8.5 million in legal expenses so far in 2024 alone.
