The imminent financial windfall for the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, is on the horizon. Trump is projected to receive a sizable “earnout” bonus of 1.25 billion dollars from his media outfit after it reached a pivotal stock price milestone, qualifying him for the reward.
As the majority stakeholder in Trump Media and Technology Group, Trump is looking at the receipt of another 36 million shares of the company on the upcoming Tuesday. The stocks of Trump Media, on Monday, closed at a value of approximately $35.50. This value is double the essential $17.50 benchmark minimum share price that the company had to reach to make Trump eligible for the bonus.
The “earnout” agreement stipulates that the Trump Media stock has to meet the benchmark for 20 trading days within a 30-day trading window. This window commenced on March 25, the date when the company was listed publicly. The culmination of these 20 days is Tuesday.
“Assuming the full issuance of the Earnout Shares, President Donald J. Trump will receive 36,000,000 Earnout Shares” – Quote from a securities filing as reported by CNBC.
Trump Media, the parent entity of the social media app Truth Social, is authorized to issue a total of 40 million “earnout” shares as part of its merger with the blank-check company Digital World Acquisitions Corp. The filing indicates that some or all of the remaining shares could be issued to Trump Media executives as part of an incentive plan.
With a robust bank balance exceeding $200 million and no outstanding debt, Trump Media is efficiently fulfilling all its merger-related obligations and is swiftly progressing with its business strategy, as conveyed by a spokesperson of Trump Media to The Post.
The potential Republican nominee for the forthcoming presidential election already owns 78.75 million shares of Trump Media. The “earnout” shares would provide Trump with 65% of the total outstanding, as per the records of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
At a per-share price of $35, Trump’s stake in Trump Media would be worth approximately $4 billion on paper. However, due to a six-month lockout provision, Trump can’t utilize this money to settle his significant legal expenses. The board of the Trump-controlled company could waive this provision, but this move might trigger a sell-off by other investors.
Trump made an appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday for the commencement of arguments in his alleged “hush money” trial. Additionally, Trump was slapped with a judgment of $454.2 million by a judge from New York State after Attorney General Letitia James successfully sued the former president’s company, accusing it of inflating its assets.
As reported by Bloomberg News, campaign finance documents indicate that Trump, who has expended nearly $5 million on lawyers the previous month, has a balance of just $6.8 million left in the accounts that he has been using to pay them.
Trump Media started trading on NASDAQ under the ticker name “DJT” at a peak of nearly $80 per share on March 26. This high price momentarily gave the company a market capitalization surpassing $9 billion. However, the share price has been reduced by nearly 70% since it hit its record high the previous month.
