https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/01/truth-social-trump-media-results/ Trump Media stock plunges as 2023 Truth Social loss put at $58 million
Former president Donald Trump’s social media company said Monday it lost more than $58 million last year, sending its stock plunging roughly 25 percent only days after a highflying public debut valued it at more than $8 billion.
Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, said in a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that the company generated just over $4 million in revenue last year, including less than $1 million in the last quarter of 2023.
The nosediving share price of the company — which uses the stock ticker DJT, for Trump’s initials — shaved off a quarter of its market value in a single day. It also slashed the value of Trump’s 57 percent ownership in the company by roughly $1 billion, to $3.6 billion.
The new financial figures throw into stark relief the gap between Trump Media’s highly hyped investor-driven valuation on the public stock market and the reality of its business performance.
It also raises questions about the possibility that Trump could use the company as a financial lifeline. Trump cannot sell his shares or use them as collateral for a loan for six months due to a provision in the company’s merger agreement, known as a lockup.
The company’s board could vote to waive that requirement but has yet to do so, the filings state. Cashing out early could sink the stock price further by flooding the market with shares and undermining investor confidence in Trump’s commitment to the brand, financial analysts said.
Trump, who invested no money in Trump Media, was given 78 million shares of the company last week and stands to earn tens of millions more over the next three years if the stock stays above $12 to $17, a filing shows.
Anonymous
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Trump Media said in a filing that it expects to incur more “operating losses and negative cash flows” as it works to expand its user base but that it expects its growth will come from Truth Social’s “overall appeal.” The company said in a filing that its management had “substantial doubt” as of the end of last year that it would have enough money to pay its debts as they come due. The company paid nearly $40 million in interest expenses last year and racked up about $16 million in operating losses. Trump’s company unlocked nearly $300 million in investor funds last week when it finalized a merger deal with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company that helped take Trump Media public. Trump Media said in a filing that it aimed to spend some of that money toward “strategic investments” in marketing, advertising sales and other technology. About $18 million of it was also paid toward a SEC settlement announced last year. The company has declined to share performance indicators like those common across the tech industry, such as its number of active users. Focusing on those numbers, the company said, “might not align with the best interests” of Trump Media or its shareholders. Trump Media, which makes money through advertising on Truth Social, has struggled to gain a broad audience after two years of operation, according to estimates from the online analytics firm Similarweb. On the company’s first day of public trading last week, Truth Social’s website saw its highest-traffic day of the month, with roughly 277,000 U.S. visitors, the estimates show. That is a small fraction of most online platforms: On the same day, the discussion-board service Reddit saw more than 32 million U.S. visitors, the estimates show. Reddit, which recently went public and is trading at a similar stock price as Trump Media, generated $800 million in revenue last year, or more than 200 times Trump Media’s 2023 revenue.
Anonymous
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Trump’s company said it has begun testing a “state-of-the-art technology that supports video streaming and provides a ‘home’ for canceled content creators,” which it “aims to acquire and incorporate into its product offerings and/or services as soon as practicable.” The company did not respond to a request for comment seeking further details. The Trump Media board includes Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.; Robert E. Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade representative; Linda McMahon, his former administrator of the Small Business Administration; and Kash Patel, who served on Trump’s National Security Council and was paid $130,000 by Trump Media last year through a consulting agreement. Trump Media’s chief executive, the former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, was given 115,000 shares, a stake worth more than $5 million today. He and other board members are bound by the same lockup agreement. Nunes is paid a $750,000 salary that is subject to increase to $1 million within two years, filings show. The company’s two chief financial officers, Phillip Juhan and Andrew Northwall, are each paid about $350,000. Nunes, Juhan and Northwall will also each receive $600,000 “retention bonuses” this month. Dan Scavino Jr., Trump’s White House social media director and an adviser to his 2024 presidential campaign, was also paid $240,000 last year through a consulting agreement that listed him as an independent contractor, a filing shows. He, too, will be given a $600,000 retention bonus. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Anonymous
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generated 4.1m last year, but lost 58m. valued in the billions. 500k members, but the sites activity is mostly just trump making his fake tweets. this is probably trumps largest grift/scam yet.
Anonymous
Lol they absolutely rammed through finalizing the merger and stock debut to get ahead of this filing going public. The company is a money laundering scheme, pure and simple. The corruption is so obvious, but the faithful just keep throwing their money at him. But hey, I made a very tidy profit with naked puts today, so let the rubes keep getting fleeced.
Anonymous
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>>1283636 They called me schizo when I said the political green movement was a money laundering and investments scam.
follow follow follow, follow the $ brick road
follow follow follow, follow the $ brick road Mon 01 Apr 2024 20:14:44 No. 1283648 Report Quoted By:
>>1283636 Russia will be a major investor, through a 3rd party, but follow the money
Anonymous Mogul
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>>1283636 >But hey, I made a very tidy profit with naked puts today, so let the rubes keep getting fleeced. this. I have 50,000 shares of $CHAD and am a full-blown Anonymous Mogul
Anonymous
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>>1283636 If the SEC was to EVER look at a stock for corruption, it is this one. Time will tell as he gets away with everything always.
Anonymous
Just gonna say, there was a suspicious lack of dRumpf shit-spam over the holiday.
Anonymous Mogul
>>1283660 >Just gonna say, on a day when normal well-adjusted people spend time with their families, there were fewer Trump supporters on here really makes you think!
Anonymous
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>>1283761 "dRumf shit-spam" is obviously referring to DailKOS tier Huffpo trash inorganically bumped by homosexual influencers.
Anonymous
>>1283761 LOL. anon, why lie to anonymous people
Anonymous
>>1283765 I don't think it's lying. I think he just can't comprehend English very well.
Anonymous
>>1283765 >>1283767 Why respond to yourself?
Anonymous
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>>1283620 Hunter Biden caused this
Anonymous
>>1283769 Not everyone has to samefag to create the illusion of agreement
Good job outing yourself, though
Anonymous
>>1283773 But you did respond to yourself.
Anonymous
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>>1283774 No, I didn't.
I was just being a dick initially, but if the idea of someone agreeing with you without having to resort to samefagging is really that foreign of a concept to you, I'm actually starting to feel bad.
Anonymous Mogul
I like how Trump cultists complain about liberals looking at bias media, but then will gulp up everything they read on "Trump Media"
Anonymous
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>>1283660 Probably a coincidence. Orthodox Easter is May 5th.
Anonymous
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>>1283660 Russia's check bounced
Anonymous
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>>1283636 goddamn, i was looking at puts last week, but they were very expensive(for obvious reasons), while I wasnt sure how long they could keep the grift afloat to set a strike date
Anonymous Mogul
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>>1283818 Reality is not a matter of opinion. It's not shades of gray. It's either right, or wrong information.
Anonymous
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Jeff Yass & TikTok are behind investment in Truth Social
Anonymous
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>>1283620 And he has to wait 6 months before he can dump his shares. Lol lmao even.