Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC trying to take Donald Trump’s media company public, today filed a Schedule 14A urging shareholders to vote before the next meeting Nov. 22. That’s when votes will be tallied to determine if the SPAC will receive a deadline extension on the deal with Trump Media and Technology Group.
Digital World has postponed and rescheduled a meeting for the vote six times after failing to reach the 65% threshold of shares needed to approve the extension. Although the SPAC could get an automatic three-month extension when the current deadline expires in December, management would have to pump more money into Digital World’s trust for the extra time. A favorable shareholder vote would secure an extension at no cost to the SPAC’s sponsor.
Digital World’s Chairman and CEO Patrick Orlando in interviews over the last two months has spoken of the challenge in getting retail investors to vote their shares on proxy matters. He further noted that a majority of the SPAC’s shareholders are retail investors.
Ironically, shares in Digital World popped 56% today, seemingly on the news that Trump may announce another run for the White House this month. While investors continue pouring money into the SPAC, not enough shareholders are engaged in the proxy vote that would keep Digital World alive until September 2023, which is the new deadline the SPAC seeks to close the deal with Trump’s social media company. Read more.
