Trump’s Big Social Media Deal Could Soon Collapse. So What Went Wrong? – By Russ Choma (Mother Jones) / Oct 8, 2022
The DWAC SPAC’s SEC attack won’t help it get back on track, experts say.
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Patrick Orlando is trying to get Donald Trump’s attention. With a critical shareholder vote fast approaching, the CEO of the beleaguered Digital World Acquisition Corp.—a so-called SPAC that is supposed to merge with the former president’s social media company—needs all the help he can get. In recent weeks, Orlando has repeatedly tagged Trump on TruthSocial in an effort to salvage a deal that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But he hasn’t gotten much of a response.
Orlando and DWAC are teetering on the edge of a cliff. Under the rules of the SPAC’s formation, the company had just 12 months to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group; otherwise, DWAC is supposed to dissolve itself and return its money to shareholders. But the merger has been held up by an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, and technically, the deadline has already passed. Orlando has staved off the immediate threat by unilaterally extending the deadline three months, but he needs 65 percent of shareholders in the company to approve a longer extension. Monday is the next, and possibly last, time to hold a shareholder’s meeting and get those votes—three previous attempts have fallen short.
Despite Orlando’s apparent pleas for Trump’s assistance, the former president hasn’t said much—or at least not much that’s helpful. In mid-September, Trump Media & Technology Group—the parent company of TruthSocial—issued a press release threatening a lawsuit against the SEC, but that isn’t viewed as a serious threat. At a rally in Michigan last weekend, Trump did rail against the SEC, accusing it of participating in a partisan conspiracy to thwart his efforts to take TMTG public. But he didn’t say what Orlando needed him to say about the upcoming DWAC vote. In fact, despite his anger at the SEC, Trump sounded like he was perfectly happy to walk away from the deal and seek alternate sources of funding for his nascent media empire.
