Trump Media inventory slips on eve of merger lockup expiration

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks down on the day he attends a press conference at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Sept. 13, 2024.

David Swanson | Reuters

Shares of Trump Media closed Wednesday at a new post-merger low, on the eve of the expiration of “lockup” restrictions that have barred the Truth Social owners’ insiders, like majority shareholder Donald Trump, from selling their stakes.

Trump Media stock fell 3.22% on relatively light trading, to close at $15.62 a share. At Wednesday’s closing stock price, the company had a market capitalization of $3.126 billion.

Trump Media made its market debut on the Nasdaq in late March, after a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

Trump and others who received stock in the company before it went public were not allowed to sell any of these shares for approximately 180 days, under the common IPO provision called a lockup agreement.

For Trump Media, the lockup period expires on Thursday.

Last week, shares shot up as much as 25% after the Republican presidential nominee said he had “absolutely no intention of selling” any of his nearly 57% stake in Trump Media.

The stock ultimately closed up 11% on Friday. But since then, it has been on a steady decline.

At Wednesday’s closing stock price, Trump’s stake in the company was worth roughly $1.8 billion. On paper, this amounted to nearly half of Trump’s personal net worth of $3.9 billion, as tallied by Forbes.

Shares of Trump Media closed down more than 6% on Tuesday, the day after a Delaware judge ruled that Trump Media has breached a contract with an early investor that helped the company go public.

The judge ruled that Trump Media must grant the investor, ARC Global, with a larger share of its stock than it had previously intended. ARC Global currently holds a %4.77 stake in Trump Media, which it would likely be free to sell once the lockup expires Thursday.

Shares fell Monday as well, closing the day nearly 4% down, one day after Trump was the target of an apparent second assassination attempt.

The downwards move Monday contrasted with the stock’s jump on July 15, the first trading day after after Trump survived an assassination attempt.Trump Media shares shot up more than 30% that Monday.

Shares are now down more than 61.66% since the July assassination attempt, which was also their most-recent high. The stock is down 76.5% overall since the merger in March.

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