TRUTH Social will be created through a new company formed by
a merger of the Trump Media and Technology Group and a special acquisition
company (SPAC), according to a press release distributed by both organisations.
“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on
Twitter, yet your favourite American President has been silenced. This is
unacceptable," Trump said in a written statement included in the release.
"I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH
Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I'm
excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back
against Big Tech," he said.
The social network, set for a beta launch next month and
full rollout in the first quarter of 2022, is the first of three stages in the
company's plans, followed by a subscription video-on-demand service called
TMTG+ that will feature entertainment, news, and podcasts, according to the
news release.
In a slide deck on its website, the company envisions
eventually competing against Amazon's AWS cloud service and Google Cloud.
A Trump representative who declined to be named confirmed
the contents of the TMTG news release to Reuters. Trump spokesperson Liz
Harrington also tweeted a copy.
"For so long, Big Tech has suppressed conservative
voices," the former president's son, Donald Trump Jr., told Fox News in an
interview. "Tonight my father signed a definitive merger agreement to form
what will ultimately be the Trump Media and Technology Group and TRUTH Social -
a platform for everyone to express their feelings."
Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms banned
Trump from their services after hundreds of his supporters rioted at the US
Capitol on January 6.
That protest came after a speech by Trump in which he
falsely claimed that his November election loss was due to widespread fraud, an
assertion rejected by multiple courts and state election officials.
The deal will list Trump Media & Technology Group on
Nasdaq through a merger with Digital World Acquisition, a blank-check
acquisition firm led by former investment banker Patrick Orlando.
Trump Media & Technology Group will receive $293 million
in cash that Digital World Acquisition had in trust, assuming no shareholder of
the acquisition firm chooses to redeem their shares, according to the
statement.
Orlando, who has worked at Deutsche Bank and BT Capital
Markets, has launched at least four SPACs and has plans for two more, according
to his firm's website and regulatory filings.
But none of the SPACs have completed a deal yet. A
China-based SPAC that Orlando led failed last month to complete a merger with
Giga Energy that would have valued the transportation solutions provider at
$7.3 billion, because it could not deliver the cash required, according to
regulatory filings.
Shareholder redemptions reduce the amount of cash that
Digital World Acquisition will have available to give to Trump Media &
Technology Group at the closing of the deal.
The companies said in the statement that the completion of
the merger is subject to redemptions not exceeding an agreed minimum cash
requirement. The statement did not disclose what the requirement is, though
that detail is typically contained in a regulatory filing that should follow on
Thursday.
The deal values Trump Media & Technology Group at $875 million, including debt, according to the news release.
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