Trump receives an additional $1.8 billion in Trump Media shares.
Trump Media & Technology Group revealed on Tuesday that Donald Trump received an additional 36 million shares in the company. This was part of an "earnout" reward, which was triggered by the company's share price remaining above certain thresholds.
The filing stated that on April 26, Trump Media officially determined that the performance criteria had been met, resulting in the former president receiving the "Earnout Shares". At the present time, these new shares are estimated to be worth around $1.8 billion on paper, although the share price has been notably unstable.
With these extra shares, Trump's holdings in Trump Media now amount to 114.75 million shares, amounting to 64.9% of the total outstanding. SEC filings have shown that the full earnout of 40 million shares would be paid out if the company's dollar volume-weighted average price hit or surpassed $17.50 for any 20 trading days within any 30-day period starting on March 25.
The 20th trading day for Trump Media fell on Tuesday, April 23, and the stock never dipped below the $17.50 level. Trump's stake in the company – and his overall net worth – has been significantly affected by the fluctuating share price in recent weeks.
It's important to note that the earnout shares given to Trump are subject to lock-up restrictions that forbid insiders from selling or borrowing against their stock for an extended period of time, as per the filings. Even if Trump manages to circumvent the lock-up agreement, experts believe it would be a difficult task to sell his entire stake swiftly without causing a sharp drop in the stock price.
Trump currently serves as the chairman and most prominent user on Truth Social, and he is the company's largest shareholder by far. The unstable nature of Trump Media's stock price is evident, with it peaking at $66 on March 27, just two days after it went public. The stock price then hit a post-merger low of $22.84 on April 16, but has since nearly doubled back to around $50.
Although Trump Media has experienced significant drops in value since late March, the share price has never threatened to breach the levels needed to forfeit this bonus.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
