In a calendar pockmarked with Bond Deadlines gag orders and criminal trial Dates Tuesday was a bright spot for Former president Trump trading began for The Trump media and Technology Group Parent to his truth social media Platform The Firm ended the day at Nearly $58 per share with a total Valuation of $7.9 Billion Mr Trump owns 60% of the shares Worth $4.5 billion at the potential Financial Lifeline as his legal bill Pile up and campaign fundraising levels Remain low for more on the stocks debut We're joined by amth ramkumar he's a Finance reporter at the Wall Street Journal thank you so much for joining us How does than so much for having me how Does this valuation compare to companies Uh of similar age with similar balance Sheets it's pretty unprecedented we've Never seen a company like this that's Only a few years old that a lot of People don't know much about we don't Really even know how many users it has On a regular basis and suddenly it's Valued at something like8 billion Trump's stake is around $4.5 billion Doar and his supporters keep pushing up The stock price raising this prospect That this could go on for a lot longer Than anyone expected so with this market Value the compan is in the neighborhood Of much more established companies like
Us steel uh the Investment Bank Jeff the Shoe company Sketchers like well-known Household named Brands and Truth social Is sitting there with them all of a Sudden so it's a pretty miraculous story Story line andth do we know who's I mean You mentioned some of the investors Who's investing in this company is it is It individuals institutions what do we Know about Them definitely a lot of individuals so Thousands of them are banding together On Truth social and other social media Platforms to buy shares of this stock Even though many Wall Street analysts And others say it's highly overvalued And speculative Trump supporters kind of See it as a way to bet on him winning The election and to help him as you Mentioned his legal and campaign expens Are piling up so we've really again Never seen something like this where you Can bet instantly on the outcome of the Election a lot of people feel by buying Shares of this company and now they have It trades under the stock ticker djt Trump's initials and Trump's uh Casino Company traded under that ticker decades Ago and now it's returned it's again Pretty surreal yeah um so help us Understand the president needs cash as We've talked about um when will he be Able to sell shares make this uh liquid Should he want to
That's the million or billion dollar Question now so uh in deals like this One Trump's company merged with a shell Company a special purpose acquisition Company or a spa so typically in these Deals insiders and large investors have To wait at least six months before Selling shares uh to get a waiver to Sell early or borrow against the stock To help pay bills he could get a waiver From the board of the company the board In this case includes his son Donald Trump Jr and three members of his Presidential C Cab cabinet as well as Deon Nunes who defended him in his first Impeachment trial on the house Intelligence committee so that's five of The seven members so you scenario where They give him the option to sell early Uh there are certain limits potentially But you could see this situation where He gets to sell several hundred million Dollars worth of shares within a Three-month period and again it's an Election year so that would be crazy and Unprecedented in terms of potentially Going toward his campaign so uh it's Really murky though and there are a lot Of technicalities here and there are Likely to be a bunch of lawsuits Potentially if he tries to sell early And there are already lawsuits from Company and spec insiders that are Weighing on this so it's going to be
Very tumultuous period for the stock you Mentioned it ended today up 16% earlier In the day it was up 59% so it's going To be swinging up and down and changing The value of Trump's shares and it it's Going to be wild to watch I'm R ramkumar Thank you for helping us understand it Now I suspect we might be back to you Again on this Finance reporter for the w Journal thank you have a good night
