(DailyAnswer.org) – A merger between Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, and Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, has been approved. The merger received regulatory approval in February 2024 from the Securities and Exchange Commission despite regular predictions over the last two years that it would not happen.
The announcement came as a blow to establishment media outlets critical of the president, such as CNN, which in November 2023 claimed that there was “substantial doubt” about the survival of Trump’s social media platform. In October 2022, Time Magazine predicted the end of Truth Social, claiming that the walls were “closing in” on the platform.
As a result of the deal that may prove beneficial to both parties, shares in Digital World Acquisition rose by over 40%. Trump doubled his net worth due to the merger and will make $3.5 billion from the deal. He will also control almost 79 million shares in the newly merged company.
The announcement comes as Trump battles in his New York civil fraud case to secure a $464 million bond. The former president’s legal team confessed that it was impossible for their client to secure the entire appeal bond because of a lack of cash on hand. Other news outlets continued to predict failure for Trump and the Truth Social platform; according to Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, the underlying business is “not worth much” and lacks evidence that it is likely to be a hugely profitable company. Kate Plummer of Newsweek predicted that the former president’s stock could collapse after Truth Social made the deal and went public.
The Washington Post claimed in November 2022 that time had run out for Trump to reconsider sticking with the platform and that he was now stuck. In April 2022, Bloomberg suggested that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter could limit the success of Truth Social as an alternative social media platform that appeals to those in favor of less aggressively censored political commentary. The combined company’s CEO, Devin Nunes, said in a statement that the company will work to take the internet back from “Big Tech censors.” Nunes stressed the commitment of the business to providing Americans with a space for free expression.
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