Trump awarded 36 million more Trump Media shares worth $1.8 billion after hitting price benchmarks
By MATT OTT
Posted 5/1/24
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has secured an additional $1.8 billion worth of shares in Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week.
Based on the company's stock …
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Trump awarded 36 million more Trump Media shares worth $1.8 billion after hitting price benchmarks
FILE - Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building as the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is displayed on screens, March 26, 2024, in New York. A Delaware judge on Tuesday, April 30, granted a request by attorneys for Donald Trump and Trump Media & Technology Group, parent company of his Truth Social platform, to slow down a lawsuit filed by two cofounders of the company. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Posted
By MATT OTT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has secured an additional $1.8 billion worth of shares in Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week.
Based on the company's stock hitting certain price benchmarks, Trump was awarded an additional 36 million shares in the company that owns his social media platform Truth Social. That brings his total ownership to more than 114 million shares, which based on Wednesday morning's stock price, are worth $5.7 billion.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, now owns close to two-thirds of the company's outstanding shares.
Trump Media & Technology Group shares have surged in the past couple of weeks and closed Tuesday at $49.93. Trump only needed the stock to be above $17.50 each for 20 consecutive trading days to secure the new shares.
Trump Media got its place on the Nasdaq after merging with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. These type of mergers offer young companies quicker and easier routes to getting their shares trading publicly.
On March 26, the first day of trading after Trump Media closed the merger with Digital World Acquisition, shares in the newly combined company reached nearly $80 each in intraday trading before closing at $57.99.
Less than a week after that flashy stock market debut, Trump Media disclosed that it lost nearly $58.2 million last year, sending its stock tumbling more than 21%. The 2023 losses marked a stark decline compared with the profit of $50.5 million that the company reported for 2022, according to a regulatory filing.
In the subsequent weeks, the company's stock tumbled to around $22 each before rebounding in mid-April.
Truth Social launched in February 2022, one year after Trump was banned from major social platforms including Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He’s since been reinstated to both but has stuck with Truth Social.
Trump Media shares rose 2.7% to $51.30 in morning trading Wednesday.