Trump media company, parent of Truth Social, begins trading on Nasdaq

For approximately $70, you can now own a share of the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.

Trading in Trump Media & Technology Group — which uses the ticker symbol DJT — began on the Nasdaq Tuesday morning after last week’s vote for a merger between Trump Media and special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corporation.

The company’s market capitalization is approximately $2.7 billion.

Trump himself owns 58 percent of the shares in the company, placing his stake at more than $5 billion based on early trading Tuesday.

“Truth Social is doing very well. It’s hot as a pistol and doing great,” Trump told reporters in New York on Monday.

Trump can’t sell or leverage his stake in the company for at least six months due to a lockup provision intended to prevent a rapid selloff that could shake investor confidence, but the company has already bolstered Trump’s net worth. On the heels of Friday’s merger vote, Trump joined the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time with a reported net worth of $6.5 billion.

In public statements, Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes has expressed confidence in the long-term success of the social media platform.

“As a public company, we will passionately pursue our vision to build a movement to reclaim the Internet from Big Tech censors,” Nunes said Monday. “We will continue to fulfill our commitment to Americans to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and to stand up to the ever-growing army of speech suppressors.”

Trump Media has a long road before it reaches profitability, according to a recent SEC filing, and most new social media companies face a low likelihood of success. In the first nine months of 2023, Trump Media brought in less than $3.4 million in revenue while losing $49 million.

Shares in the special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp have performed well in recent months ahead of the merger, partially due a support from smaller investors rallying the price.

Trump himself is intertwined with the fate of the company as not only its majority shareholder but also the platform’s most prominent user. If he were to stop using the platform, its share would likely suffer, a recent SEC filing acknowledged.

“If Truth Social fails to develop and maintain followers or a sufficient audience, if adverse trends develop in the social media platforms generally, or if President Trump were to cease to be able to devote substantial time to Truth Social, TMTG’s business would be adversely affected,” a recent filing said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.