Truth Social to become part of a public company

Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp., or DWAC, voted on Friday in favor of a merger with the Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month approved the proposed merger between the two companies.

Wait, what are these two companies? DWAC is a blank-check company designed “for the purpose of effecting a merger,” or a similar combination with a business, according to its website. “We intend to focus on combining with a leading tech company,” it added. Trump Media & Technology Group is the parent of Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media platform.

What does this all mean? Trump could net as much as $3.5 billion in profits from the merger. According to a prospectus filed with the SEC last month, Trump will retain 58.2 percent of the voting shares in the company created by the merger, “New Digital World.” At around 12 p.m. ET on Friday, NASDAQ reported the price of individual shares in the company sat at around $41. Trump owes roughly $454 million in fines to New York State for business fraud.

Dig deeper: Read Grace Snell’s report in WORLD Magazine about how Trump spins legal woes into campaign funds.