Streaming offer planned
Trump’s media company crashes on the stock market
April 17, 2024, 12:58 a.m
Around three weeks after the brilliant stock market debut of Trump’s media company TMTG, disillusionment followed: After the hush money trial was opened against the ex-US President, the company lost a large part of its market value. The company is now announcing its interest in new business areas.
Former US President Donald Trump’s media group also wants to offer a TV streaming service in the future. Initially, the function will be added to the online network Truth Social, and later there will be an independent streaming service, announced the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG). The announcement came on the second day of jury selection in a historic hush-money criminal trial against Trump. Nonetheless, the company’s shares continued to plunge on Tuesday.
“We are excited to advance the next big phase for Truth Social,” said TMTG CEO Devin Nunes. “Our goal is to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that is discriminated against by other channels (…).” According to the company, the streamed content will focus on news, religion and “family-friendly” films and documentaries.
Trump is the largest shareholder
Trump founded TMTG to set up his online network Truth Social; he holds almost 60 percent of the shares and, according to an agreement, is not allowed to sell them until September at the earliest. According to the “Handelsblatt”, many Trump supporters may have invested in the stock to support his election campaign.
To go public, TMTG merged with the partner company Digital World Acquisition (DWAC). The group suffered a severe setback on the Nasdaq technology exchange on Tuesday. The securities traded under the symbol “DJT” slipped by more than twelve percent over the course of Tuesday. On its first day of trading on March 26, DJT was valued at almost $11 billion – based on its share price of $22.97 on Tuesday afternoon, the company’s market value is now less than $3.2 billion.
The shares of Trump’s media group had already crashed on Monday. On this day, a high-profile trial began against the designated Republican presidential candidate: Trump is accused of forging business documents to cover up a hush money payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The 77-year-old has pleaded not guilty.