Truth Social lost $58 million last year. Here's who made money anyway.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Truth Social lost $58 million last year. Here’s who made money anyway.

Trump’s social network generated just $4 million in revenue last year, but Trump’s stake is worth billions, and the company’s leaders stand to make millions in salaries, bonuses and stock

By Drew Harwell
April 7, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. E

{snip picture}

From left, Trump Media’s Devin Nunes, Donald Trump and Kash Patel.

Former president Donald Trump’s social media company generated just $4 million in revenue last year — about as much as the average McDonald’s franchise in the United States, according to a report last year by the fast-food industry publication QSR.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

But that hasn’t stopped Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, from granting Trump a share package now worth billions of dollars — or from paying its leaders millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses and stock, according to documents it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Trump Media, based in Sarasota, Fla., has only 36 employees and lost $58 million last year, the filings show. The online analytics firm Similarweb estimates that Truth Social’s traffic is less than 1 percent of Reddit’s, a platform that received $800 million in revenue last year.

{snip}

By Drew Harwell
Drew Harwell is a reporter for The Washington Post covering artificial intelligence and the algorithms changing our lives. He was a member of an international reporting team that won a George Polk Award in 2021.

[Chainfire]

1. You have to be really special to get rich on your losings.

[cliffside]

2. Interesting bit in the article ...

"Trump is Trump Media’s biggest shareholder, with 57.3 percent of the company, or 78.7 million shares — a stake worth about $3.2 billion based on the stock’s closing price Friday.

Through an “earnout” provision, Trump stands to receive another 36 million shares if the price stays above $17.50 for 20 days, which could happen as soon as April 26 and would raise his total stake to $4.7 billion."

And Nunes seems to be doing ok.

[Hugin]

3. The trades in DJT today seem to be aimed at exactly that...

They are extremely technical trades with the goal of keeping the tip jar open for the fundamentally bankrupt enterprise.

If a franchise took in $4 M on expenditures of $58 M it would have been shuttered yesterday. But, let’s pretend that is not happening.

One franchise in a global corporation, of which there are thousands, would only account for a tiny fraction of the revenue for the corporation. That’s in at least the third decimal point or 0.001 of the income potential for the corporation.

Why is anyone even taking DJT seriously? It is nothing in the spectrum of the markets as a whole.

TSF’s hobby horse should be shut down on those terms as well. It’s less than a penny stock.

Here we are, though.

[cliffside]

5. Technical trades ...

Friday closed slightly higher with a hammer just above the top of the gap from January. Guessing some covered and others might be playing for a bounce. I think the interest is hoping he cannot use any of this money in the months ahead.

[Hugin]

7. That's probably a good surmise.

So much of the stock in DJT is locked up in the hands choking the bat vying for total control, there’s little left to actually make the listing rise or fall on sentiment. So, vacillations like was seen on Friday around it’s pre-IPO mean may be all that’s possible.

Even though Trump was begging his supporters to buy DJT. Buy what? There’s no stock available.

There were some rumors bouncing around it’s boards that if DJT can hold it’s value ( ) one of the big social media giants may snatch it up. (Eques was named specifically) That one made me involuntarily guffaw so loud it set off the car alarm in my garage.

If nothing else, DJT is a master course in how NOT to operate a publicly traded company.

[cliffside]

8. Well I certainly would not touch it ...

but it has been on my watch list, only out of curiosity, since DWAC started trading in late 2021. It was mentioned on a message board by trump supporters in 10/2021. Plus I was fascinated by the name "Digital World Acquisition Corporation" ... high hopes!

Googled Eques, not much on their website

Maybe TJT could be the next META

He never knew how to run a business!

https://www.tradingview.com/x/w9lwLXo1/

[usaf-vet]

4. No wonder he doesn't have enought money to pay his fine. He need the cash to keep the "earnout" to stay above $17.50.

Are he and other billionaires manipulating the stock prices? No surprises here.

[cliffside]

6. Not sure but he would love to have the money available :) nt