Trump's social media company approved to go public

NEW YORK

Donald Trump is returning to the stock market, and the former president stands to reap a sizeable payout in the process.

Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded shell company, approved a deal to merge with the Trump’s media business in a vote.

That means Trump Media & Technology Group, whose flagship product is social networking site Truth Social, will soon begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market.

Trump is set to own most of the combined company — or nearly 79 million shares. Multiply that by Digital World’s closing stock price of $36.94 on March 22, and the total value of his stake could be nearly $3 billion.

The greenlight arrives at a time the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is facing his most costly legal battle to date: a $454 million judgment in a fraud lawsuit.

But Trump won't be able to cash out the deal's windfall immediately, unless the company's board makes changes to a “lock-up” provision that prevents company insiders from selling newly issued shares for six months.

If recent activity in Digital World's stock is any indication, shareholders of Trump Media could be in for a bumpy ride.

Many of Digital World’s investors are small-time investors who are either fans of Trump or trying to cash in on the mania, instead of big institutional and professional investors.

Those shareholders helped the stock more than double this year in anticipation of the merger going through. But on March 22, the shares lost almost 14 percent.

Trump’s earlier foray into the stock market didn’t end well. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts went public in 1995. By 2004, Trump’s casino company had filed for bankruptcy protection and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Trump Media lost $49 million in the first nine months of last year, when it brought in just $3.4 million in revenue and had to pay $37.7 million in interest expenses.