Donald Trump could get millions more Trump Media shares — if the stock stays afloat
Former President Donald Trump could earn tens of millions more shares in Trump Media & Technology Group if the stock meets certain performance thresholds.
Trump stands to earn 36 million so-called earnout shares if Trump Media’s dollar volume-weighted average price (DVWAP) — the average share price for a period of time, weighted by volume of shares — is at least $12.50 for a minimum of 20 trading days within any 30 trading day period, according to a Monday morning filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That means, if on any 20 days within a 30 day period the DVWAP is over $12.50, certain shareholders will get 15 million shares. At $15, the shareholders will receive 15 million. And at $17.50, they will receive 10 million shares. If all 40 million of these shares were issued, Trump would get 36 million of them, or 90%.
Trump Media, the company behind Truth Social, went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT on March 26, after completing its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Upon the completion of the merger, Trump received 78.75 million shares of common stock in exchange for his private shares in Trump Media, the filing said.
Shares of Trump Media closed down 18% Monday to less than $27 per share, bringing the company’s market cap to about $3.65 billion — less than half what it was during its first trading week highs. The company has been publicly traded for 14 days as of Monday.
The company also said it is registering the resale of up to almost 21.5 million new shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants, up to about 146 million shares of common stock, and up to about 4 million warrants to purchase common stock. Certain shares held by insiders may still be restricted from trading until the expiration of a lock-up agreement 5-6 months after the date of the IPO.
The number of shares Trump Media is offering for resale is 256% of the company’s public float, or the regular shares it has issued to the public that are available for investors to trade, and 107% of its outstanding shares as of Jan. 31. The company said that despite its closing price of $32.59 on April 12 — the price at which the shares are being offered — shareholders “may still experience a positive rate of return” on the shares of common stock they purchased.
Just a week after its high-flying debut, Trump Media stock began to nosedive after the company disclosed a loss from operations of almost $16 million in 2023, plus interest expense of $39.4 million, while bringing in just $4.1 million in revenue. That’s compared with a loss from operations of $23.2 million, plus interest expense of $2 million, on $1.5 million in revenue in 2022, according to earlier regulatory filings.
