NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump is returning to the stock market, and the former president stands to reap a sizeable payout in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded shell company, approved a deal to merge<\/a> with the Trump\u2019s media business in a Friday vote. That means Trump Media & Technology Group, whose flagship product is social networking site Truth Social<\/a>, will soon begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is set to own most of the combined company \u2014 or nearly 79 million shares. Multiply that by Digital World\u2019s closing stock price Friday of $36.94, and the total value of his stake could be nearly $3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The greenlight arrives at a time the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is facing his most costly legal battle to date: a\u00a0$454 million judgment<\/a>\u00a0in a fraud lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Trump won\u2019t be able to cash out<\/a> the deal\u2019s windfall immediately, unless the company\u2019s board makes changes to a \u201clock-up\u201d provision that prevents company insiders from selling newly issued shares for six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s presidential campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a publicly traded shell company agrees to buy a private company, the target company takes its place on a stock exchange once the combination is approved by shareholders. If recent activity in Digital World\u2019s stock is any indication, shareholders of Trump Media could be in for a bumpy ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of Digital World\u2019s 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 Friday, the shares lost almost 14%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s earlier foray into the stock market didn\u2019t end well. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts went public in 1995 under the symbol DJT \u2014 the same symbol Trump Media will trade under. By 2004, Trump\u2019s casino company had filed for bankruptcy protection and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahead of Friday\u2019s approval, Digital World\u2019s regulatory filings listed many of the risks its investors face, as well as those of the Truth Social owner once Trump Media also goes public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One risk, the company said, is that Trump would be entitled to vote in his own interest as a controlling stockholder \u2014 which may not always be in the interests of all shareholders. Digital World also cited the high rate of failure for new social media platforms, as well as Trump Media\u2019s expectation that it would lose money on its operations \u201cfor the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DWA\u2019s shareholders also voted Friday to approve a slate of seven people, including the former president\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr., to hold seats on Trump Media\u2019s board. Among the others are former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who would also be the company\u2019s CEO; Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump\u2019s U.S. trade representative; Linda McMahon, who ran the Small Business Administration under Trump; and, Kashyap \u201cKash\u201d Patel, a White House national security aide during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump Media and Digital World first announced their merger plans back in October 2021. In addition to a federal probe<\/a>, the deal faced a series of lawsuits leading up to Friday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Truth Social launched in February 2022<\/a>, one year after Trump was banned from major social platforms<\/a> including Facebook and Twitter, the platform now known as X, following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He\u2019s since been reinstated to both, but has stuck with Truth Social as a megaphone for his message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump promoted Truth Social in a post on the social media network Thursday evening, saying: \u201cTRUTH SOCIAL IS MY VOICE, AND THE REAL VOICE OF AMERICA!!! MAGA2024!!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump Media hasn\u2019t so far disclosed Truth Social\u2019s user numbers. But research firm Similarweb estimates that it had roughly 5 million active mobile and web users in February. That\u2019s far below TikTok\u2019s more than 2 billion and Facebook\u2019s 3 billion \u2014 but still higher than other \u201calt-tech\u201d rivals like Parler, which has been offline<\/a> for nearly a year but is planning a comeback, or Gettr, which had less than 2 million visitors in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plunge into the public market means Trump\u2019s social media business will soon have to disclose more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Private companies are accountable to their owners, while public ones are accountable to the shareholders who own the company\u2019s stock. Once public, Trump Media will be required to report its quarterly finances as well as other material news to federal regulators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this sense, Truth Social faces some of the same problems that X has been contending with \u2014\u00a0mainstream advertisers<\/a>\u00a0who don\u2019t want to be\u00a0associated with hate speech<\/a>\u00a0and other controversial content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n