The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a multi-billion dollar merger of Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
After two years of delays due to regulators’ investigation into the company, the deal is set to move forward.
SEC has approved the merger of approximately $10 billion, OANN reported.
The Trump Media & Technology Group intends to take Truth Social public in an initial public offering (IPO).
For the process to begin, Trump has had to give up a lot of equity in the platform.
Trump will own $79 million in shares of the business., according to SEC filings.
As of Tuesday, DWAC shares were trading at around $45-47 per share.
The former president’s ownership ranges between 60-70 percent of the company, depending on how the deal will go.
Reuters reported:
Digital World also said that TMTG spent $38.5 million between its inception in February 2021 and September 2023, funded through borrowings, and that it may issue up to $65 million in convertible notes to avoid a liquidity crunch.
TMTG posted total revenue of $3.4 million in the first nine months of 2023, up from $237,000 a year earlier, according to the Digital World filing. Its operational loss was $10.6 million, down from $19.3 million a year earlier.
TMTG said that among its board directors once the deal is completed will be Trump’s former National Security Council adviser Kash Patel, attorney and former Louisiana prosecutor W. Kyle Green, World Wrestling Entertainment co-creator Linda McMahon, Trump’s former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Trump’s son Don Jr. TMTG’s chief executive is former U.S. lawmaker Devin Nunes.
TMTG was launched to connect Trump with his followers after he was cut off from major social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Trump has 6.61 million followers on Truth Social, compared to the more than 88 million followers he had on X when the platform permanently suspended him, and the 87.4 million followers he currently has on that platform.
Digital World says Truth Social has so far had 8.9 million signups. X, by comparison, has more than half a billion monthly users, according to Musk.
On Nov. 19, the San Francisco-based app reversed its position under Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” who bought Twitter on Oct. 2.
In August, Trump broke a pledge to stick exclusively with Truth Social and posted on X his mug shot from his booking at Fulton County Jail in Georgia. He has not posted on X since, using Truth Social as his primary platform to reach voters.
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