Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer. A SPAC merger to bring Donald Trump’s media company public was announced back in October 2021, and the deal for the TRUTH Social platform has yet to close.
The merger has faced many setbacks and regulatory pressure in the nearly two years since the deal was announced.
A key date for the merger — and the future of the company — is coming up soon.
What Happened: A merger between Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Digital World Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: DWAC) was announced in October 2021.
Since the deal was announced, the merger has faced several setbacks and regulatory pressure. The merger approval vote was recently pushed back to Dec. 31, 2023.
News of the vote extension boosted shares of the stock, as did the announcement of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July.
While the last day of the calendar year remains a key one for the company, investors in the SPAC should have a date coming in the next two weeks circled on their calendars.
Related Link: Trump To Maintain Control Of Media Company If He Sells Majority, Goes To Jail Or Becomes President
What’s Next: Digital World Acquisition Corporation went public in September 2021 and faces an upcoming deadline of Sept. 8, 2023, based on the two-year anniversary of its IPO.
Three separate filings by Digital World Acquisition Corporation on Aug. 17 showed the huge push by the company to get shareholder approval to extend its deadline to complete a deal.
“SPACs have 2 years to identify a company to merge with and complete the merger with a private company to make it public. This 2-year timeframe can only be extended with a vote from the shareholders to approve an extension,” a filing reads.
Several of the filings show the documents sent to shareholders, which feature the wording “vote today to avoid company liquidation.”
The SPAC needs to obtain shareholder approval to extend the merger to September 2024 by Sept. 8 or it faces liquidation and will pay out its net asset value to all shareholders.
If the company does receive shareholder approval, it would be able to extend the vote date and completion deadline to Sept. 8, 2024, giving the company another year to get the merger approved and completed.
SPAC expert Julian Klymochko of Accelerate took to Twitter, now known as X, to share his take on the pending deadline.
“Would be quite ironic if the reason that Trump’s SPAC merger fails is if the wingnut shareholders, who are keeping it levitating 70% above its net asset value, fail to vote for the deal. With DWAC postponing the vote to Sept. 5th, it faces the prospect of liquidating for $10.30,” Klymochko tweeted.
All shareholders as of July 10 are eligible to vote on the merger extension.
DWAC stock has been highly volatile in 2023, with several spikes around Trump's four indictments. With multiple court dates ahead, the SPAC could remain in the news and actively traded.
That is of course if the SPAC survives its upcoming deadline.
DWAC Price Action: Digital World Acquisition shares are trade at $15.08 on Monday versus a 52-week trading range of $12.34 to $31.29. Shares of the SPAC are down 50% in the last year and have fallen significantly from a peak of $175 in 2021.
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