Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp.voted Friday to approve a merger with Donald Trump’s social media company, a deal that could net the former president an eventual windfall of $3 billion or more.
CNBC reports the vote by DWAC shareholders comes about 2½ years after the so-called special purpose acquisition company announced plans to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, the private firm that owns the Truth Social app platform.
It also comes as Trump faces the possibility that New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday will start trying to collect on a massive $454 million civil fraud judgment against him.
Shares in the newly combined company, Trump Media, could begin to be publicly traded next week under the stock symbol DJT, Trump’s initials.
The potential windfall for Trump, while massive, could not be immediately realized, at least not under the deal’s current terms. Trump will be barred from selling shares in the merged company for at least six months, and there is no guarantee Trump Media shares will maintain the trading price level that DWAC did before the merger.
It is possible that the board of directors could vote to allow Trump to sell shares earlier than that. If the board signed off on lifting the share lockup period, that could quickly free up a large source of cash for Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year.
Trump currently faces huge legal bills from his attorneys in criminal and civil cases, and damage judgments topping a half-billion dollars in three separate civil cases.
Trump earlier this week asked a New York appeals court to issue a stay of the $454 million fraud judgment as he seeks to overturn the verdict in the case. That court has yet to rule on his request.
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