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After being held up for nearly two years on one pretext or the other, including federal investigations on inappropriate disclosures and a full-fledged money laundering inquiry for allegedly receiving funds from Russia’s Putin, the planned merger between the SPAC Digital World (DWAC) and the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) – the entity that controls the Truth Social platform – is finally coming to fruition.
We reported earlier this week that the SPAC Digital World was gearing up to announce the date for a special meeting of its shareholders “within two business days,” where those shareholders would be required to officially approve the proposed business combination with the Trump Media and Technology Group.
Digital World has just announced via a new filing that the much-anticipated meeting of its shareholders will now occur at 10:00 a.m. on the 22nd of March, 2024:
“The Special Meeting will be held on March 22, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time and the record date for the Special Meeting is February 14, 2024. The live-webcast for the Special Meeting will be available by visiting https://www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DWAC2024SM.”
Trump will have 78 million shares post merger. pic.twitter.com/cKNBMM3QRE
— Matthew Goldstein (@MattGoldstein26) February 15, 2024
Once approved, the shares of the merged entity will be able to trade on the Nasdaq exchange. What’s more, former US President Trump will own 78.75 million shares of the combined company, making him by far the biggest beneficiary.
In preparation for its impending merger, Digital World has been setting its financial house in order in recent days. The SPAC issued promissory notes worth $50 million last week to bolster its liquidity. These notes offer annual interest of 8 percent and are eligible to be converted into equity, provided that qualifying conditions are met. Digital World is also likely to get around $35 million from the sale of warrants to certain institutional investors.
Moreover, to induce Trump’s media-focused entity to continue to adhere to its merger agreement, Digital World recently announced $6.38 million in cumulative cash bonuses to attract and retain “employees and other personnel associated with TMTG,” while also offering 40 million additional earnout shares.
Bear in mind that the Trump Media and Technology Group faced quite serious cash constraints when it could not close its merger agreement with Digital World for an extended period. The SPAC has raised around $293 million in funds via an IPO, which will be placed at TMTG’s disposal once the merger achieves closure. As of September 2023, Truth Social had just $1.8 million in cash against total liabilities of $60.5 million.