DWAC's stock surge gives a $1 billion boost to the value of Trump's stake

By Tomi Kilgore

DWAC's name officially changed to Trump Media & Technology Group. Stock begins trading Tuesday with the former president's initials - DJT - as its ticker symbol.

Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. soared in active trading Monday, after the blank-check company's merger with former President Donald Trump's social-media company officially closed.

The name of the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, has changed to Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., and the public company's stock will begin trading under the ticker symbol "DJT" on Tuesday.

Basically, the actual stock doesn't change, just the symbol.

Also read: Donald Trump to own nearly 80 million 'DJT' shares

DWAC's stock (DWAC) ran up $13.01, or 35.2%, to close at $49.95 ahead of the ticker-symbol change. That's the biggest one-day gain since it rocketed 88.4% on Jan. 22 in the wake of Ron DeSantis's dropping out of the presidential primary race and throwing his support behind Trump.

Trading volume ballooned to more than 21 million shares, compared with the full-day average over the past 30 trading sessions of about 2.1 million shares.

The company said in February that Trump would own 78,750,000 shares of the post-merger company, or 69.4% of the shares outstanding assuming maximum redemptions by DWAC shareholders. That means the value of Trump's holdings got a $1.02 billion boost on Monday, and would be valued at $3.93 billion at the closing price.

With the merger's closing, which came 29 months after the agreement was first announced, TMTG Chief Executive Devin Nunes, and the existing management team, will continue to lead the company.

"As a public company, we will passionately pursue our vision to build a movement to reclaim the internet from big tech censors," said Nunes, a former Trump-aligned congressman from rural central California.

DWAC had said in a release late Friday that a "vast majority" of the votes cast at the special meeting of shareholders were in favor of the acquisition of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which is the parent of Truth Social.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after Friday's close, the SPAC showed that 26,633,233 shares were voted in favor of the merger, while 66,010 shares voted against and 51,890 abstained.

Read on: DWAC's stock takes a dive after merger with Trump Media approved by shareholders

-Tomi Kilgore

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03-25-24 1706ET

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