Trump Media & Technology Group, the social media company that owns Truth Social and is itself majority-owned by one of its most avid users, former President Donald Trump, reached its peak value in March after merging a with publicly traded shell company. At the time, Trump's stake was worth $6 billion and he was leading President Joe Biden in the polls.
It could not last.
The stock price of Trump Media closed Wednesday at $16.98, down 74% from March, according to a New York Times report. That's below the $17.50 share price that the shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corporation, had at the start of the year. Trump, who owns 115 million shares, about 60% of the company, saw his Trump Media stake reduced in value to just $2 billion.
The Wednesday numbers mark a low point in a slide that has accompanied his falling poll numbers in the 2024 race, as investors perceive that the former president's chances against Vice President Kamala Harris are fading. Unless something arrests the slide, the company might see even worse days to come: On September 19, a contractual lockup that blocks Trump from selling any of his shares will expire, allowing him and other shareholders to jump ship and further depress Trump Media's stock price.
Many of those shareholders are Trump supporters who began purchasing shares of Digital World during the heady months following the merger announcement in October 2021.
Analysts told CBS that Trump Media's operating model, which relies on buzz and social media to determine stock prices rather than business fundamentals, made the company especially vulnerable to a decline in Trump's own political stock. Some 41% of the the company's value was lost after Biden dropped out of the race in late July.
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