Potential Trump partner delays a vote on social media platform

NEW YORK — A key decision over whether Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social will merge with a cash-rich company and get $1.3 billion to take on Twitter has been put off for another month.

The potential partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp., on Thursday postponed a shareholder vote to extend by a year a deadline to close its merger with Trump’s company and release funds to pay its bills. At least 65 percent of shareholders need to approve the extension, a threshold not reached in tallies earlier in the day.

Shares of Miami-based Digital World, which have been generally falling after small-pocketed investors pushed them over $100 last year, closed Thursday up 1 percent to $23.35.

If a new deal deadline isn’t approved at a shareholder meeting on Oct. 10, Digital World can still play for time. It can delay the deadline by three months if sponsors backing its company pay nearly $3 million into a trust account, then delay again for another three months for the same payment. The company has said previously it would chose to delay three months if necessary.

If the deal is not closed by the new deadlines, Digital World must liquidate and Truth Social’s parent, Trump Media & Technology Group, will have to find other sources of cash. It could do that by borrowing, finding private investors or having Trump himself contribute the money, something he has avoided in many of his business ventures but has hinted he might do.

“I don’t need financing, ‘I’m really rich,’ ” Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month. “Private company anyone???”

Digital World’s deal with Trump’s company was troubled almost from the start. In November, the Securities and Exchange Commission requested documents from Digital World following news reports that it had talked with Trump representatives about joining forces before selling its own stock to the public for the first time, a possible violation of security rules.