[ad_1]
NY
cnn
—
Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group has closed its deal to go public, creating a huge windfall for former President Donald Trump that doubles his net worth.
After Trump Media announced that he would make his stock market debut on Tuesday, Trump joined the list of the world’s 500 richest people for the first time in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bloomberg estimated that Trump’s net worth increased by $4 billion on Monday alone, giving him a fortune of $6.5 billion.
The closing of the merger between Trump Media and Digital World Acquisition Corp. amounts to a billion-dollar windfall for Trump, who is the chairman and dominant shareholder of the new company.
News of the merger completion drove Digital World shares up 21%. Buying continued Monday afternoon, pushing Digital World up 39% on the day to around $51. At current prices, Trump’s stake is valued at about $4 billion. However, there are restrictions that would likely prevent Trump from selling or even borrowing against the value of those shares for months.
Trading of the new company under the symbol “DJT” on the Nasdaq stock market will begin Tuesday, the companies said.
Devin Nunes, CEO of the combined company, said in a statement that the company will act to “take back the Internet from Big Tech’s censors.”
“We will continue to fulfill our commitment to Americans to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and stand up to the growing army of speech suppressors,” Nunes said.
Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), the shell company that now owns Truth Social, rose more than 20% on Monday. The stock is up more than 170% in the last six months.
Experts warn that the market is overvaluing Trump Media given the company’s fundamentals.
Trump Media generated just $3.4 million in revenue during the first nine months of last year, according to SECOND filings. The company posted a net loss of $49 million during that period.
Meanwhile, Truth Social’s user base is shrinking, more so than that of X, the company formerly known as Twitter.
The number of monthly active users of Truth Social in the US on iOS and Android has decreased 39% year over year, according to Similarweb data shared with CNN earlier this month.
In anticipation of its merger with Trump Media, DWAC stock trading had embodied the same kind of frenzy displayed in the surge in Tupperware stock last July, or that of meme stocks AMC Entertainment and GameStop during the height of the pandemic. On Truth Social, there are over 8,000 members in a chat group titled “The DWAC Shareholder Group,” where users discuss the shareholder vote. approve the merger and post memes and messages of support.
Contributing: CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald and Krystal Hur.
This story has been updated with additional context.
