NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Trump Media & Technology Group, whose flagship product is social networking site Truth Social, will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market on Tuesday.
Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded shell company, approved with the Trump鈥檚 media business in a Friday vote.
Shares of Digital World have been volatile. On Friday the stock slumped 13.7% after the merger was approved. On Monday, it soared 35.2% to $49.95.
Former President Donald Trump is set to own most of the combined company 鈥 or nearly 79 million shares, with a value of nearly $4 billion.
Trump won鈥檛 be able his stake in the Palm Beach, Florida-based company immediately, unless the company鈥檚 board makes changes to a 鈥渓ock-up鈥 provision that prevents company insiders from selling newly issued shares for six months.
The former president was in New York Monday attending a hearing on his criminal hush money case. Elsewhere, a New York appeals court what he must post in cash or a bond while appealing a $454 million civil fraud ruling..
Truth Social , one year after Trump was including Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He鈥檚 since been reinstated to both but has stuck with Truth Social. Trump has promoted Truth Social on the platform itself 鈥 on Friday he posted 鈥淚 love Truth Social.鈥
Trump Media hasn鈥檛 so far disclosed Truth Social鈥檚 user numbers but now that the company is publicly traded, more information will be disclosed. Research firm Similarweb estimates that it had roughly 5 million active mobile and web users in February. That鈥檚 far below TikTok鈥檚 more than 2 billion and Facebook鈥檚 3 billion 鈥 but still higher than other 鈥渁lt-tech鈥 rivals like Parler, which for nearly a year but is planning a comeback, or Gettr, which had less than 2 million visitors in February.
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.
The common stock of Media & Technology Group will trade under the ticker symbol 鈥淒JT.鈥
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This story has been updated to correct that the amount of Trump鈥檚 bond, not the judgment, in a civil trial was reduced to $175 million.
