Trump's Truth Social network could net stock worth billions on paper

NEW YORK >> The Wall Street debut of Donald Trump's Truth Social network could give him stock worth billions of dollars on paper. But the former president probably will not be able to cash it out right away, unless some things change.

The longer-term outlook for the business is highly questionable. Trump's company has said it expects to continue losing money for a while, and at least one expert says it's likely worth far less than the stock market suggests.

Trump's pending return to Wall Street comes down to a vote scheduled for today by shareholders of a company named Digital World Acquisition Corp., which at the moment is essentially just a pile of cash.

The corporation hopes to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social that goes by TMTG. If the shareholders approve the deal, TMTG could soon see its stock trading on the Nasdaq in Digital World's place.

Today, shareholders of Digital World are scheduled to vote on whether to approve a merger with TMTG, where Trump is the chairman. Digital World is what's called a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, or “blank-check company.”

SPACs raise cash and then hunt for companies to merge with. Such deals give the target companies a potentially quicker and easier way to get their stocks onto the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. The arrangement lets them avoid some of the paperwork associated with traditional initial public offerings of stock, or IPOs.

If shareholders approve the proposal, Digital World will merge with TMTG. The stock will continue to trade under Digital World's ticker, DWAC, possibly for a couple of days to a couple of weeks, experts say. Then at some point, companies in SPAC deals usually announce that their stock will begin trading under the new ticker symbol.

Trump's company hopes to trade under the ticker symbol DJT, the former president's initials.