Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform is at risk of losing $140 million worth of investments after a planned merger failed to occur at a specified deadline, according to the latest reports from Business Insider.
Just a few months ago, Truth Social took the internet by storm. For a brief period of time, it was the number one downloaded app, and new users were being added at a rate of almost one million per week. The website was being visited almost 6 million times. The timing of each success could be seen to coincide with the former president’s return to social media, the app’s launch, Elon Musk’s bid to purchase rival Twitter, or a combination of all three.
Despite the site’s popularity, which received enormous fanfare out of the gate and a later boost amidst the incipient Musk negotiations for Twitter, the Trump-backed company now finds itself facing a loss of considerable funding.
Business Insider writes:
“Blank-check” company Digital World Acquisition said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday that some backers were pulling a total of $139 million they had planned to put into the deal. Digital World had previously announced funding commitments of $1 billion.
The investors who signed up for the deal about a year ago were able to back out if it was not completed by September 20.
The investors who walked away were not disclosed in the filings, but Reuters reported that Sabby Management, which planned to put in $100 million, is one that had bowed out.
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Sources relaying information to Business Insider also suggested more investors could soon back out for the two-fold reason that this latest development could present Digital World Acquisition with an opportunity to renegotiate the merger with more favorable terms, as well as concerns over potential criminality within certain discussions. The sources also hinted at possible investigations and litigation stemming from a violation of certain timeline protocols with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Business Insider continued:
The company has struggled to close the Truth Social merger and previously blamed the SEC for delaying the deal amid criminal and civil investigations.
The SEC started examining the deal in June over the possibility that Trump Media and Digital World had held discussions before the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) went public last year without informing the watchdog.
In spite of the latest setbacks, Donald Trump’s Truth Social has been a gamechanger in the leftist-controlled social media space. Conservative alternatives like Parler, Gab, and Gettr never really took off, and it has been Trump’s presence on his own Twitter-like platform that has both boosted the site as a whole and provided a vehicle for Trump to hit back at political opponents and smear campaigns.
The former president repeatedly uses the platform to highlight successes of his political moves or simply to just troll Democrats in hilarious fashion. In one of his more recent trolls, the president mocked Joe Biden for his lame location at the late Queen’s funeral service in Westminster Abbey.
Trump hit hard with back to back posts, mocking Brandon that “location is everything” and that if he were president the crown wouldn’t have dared sit him back there:
Savage pic.twitter.com/d7yzmR73D2
— Jack Posobiec XLV (@JackPosobiec) September 19, 2022