Former President Donald Trump's Truth Social will begin trading under the ticker "DJT" on Tuesday, putting the real estate tycoon — and his initials — at the helm of a publicly traded company once again.
Trump Media & Technology Group, whose main asset is the social media service Truth Social, said in a statement Monday that the ticker symbol will be active tomorrow, following its merger with a so-called blank-check company, also known as a special purchase acquisition company (SPAC). SPACs are shell companies created to take a private business public without going through an initial public offering.
In the case of Trump's media business, the shareholders of the SPAC, called Digital World Acquisition Corp., voted Friday in favor of the merger, ushering in the next step of taking the new Truth Social company public without an IPO. The merged company officially changed its name to Trump Media & Technology Group after the deal was completed on Monday, the statement said.
The eponymous symbol "is so on brand" for Trump, noted Kristi Marvin, chief executive of SPACInsider.com, a service that provides news and data about the SPAC industry.
Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. surged by $8.56, representing a 23% increase, reaching $45.50 during early afternoon trading on Monday.
The company is poised to start trading under the DJT ticker symbol, potentially attaining a valuation surpassing $5 billion, based on the current Digital World Acquisition Corp. stock price. This would signify a substantial market capitalization for Truth Social's parent company, which disclosed revenue of $3.3 million for the initial nine months of 2023, as per a regulatory filing earlier this year.
While numerous tech firms have gone public while operating at a loss, investors generally seek evidence of a company's ability to expand its user base and boost sales rapidly by attracting a wide array of advertisers. Truth Social, which does not disclose its user figures, was estimated to have approximately 5 million active members in February, according to research firm Similarweb.
In contrast, Reddit, which recently went public.
Previous DJT ticker: From IPO to penny stock
This isn't the first instance of Trump being associated with a publicly traded company using the DJT ticker symbol.
In 1995, a significant event took place in the business world involving the DJT ticker. During this time, Trump decided to take his Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts public through an IPO. The primary goal behind this move was to raise funds from the public markets to support the expansion of Trump's casino ventures, as reported by the New York Times. Initially, the shares saw a positive performance, rising from the IPO price of $14 to a peak of $35 per share shortly after. However, the stock's value plummeted in the following years, eventually trading for mere pennies, according to the Washington Post.
Subsequently, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004.
