• @Lauchs
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    12710 months ago

    I mean, if you get into business with a renowned fraudster, him trying to commit fraud and steal from you seems pretty par for the course…

    • @meco03211
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      8510 months ago

      I didn’t think the leopard would eat my face though.

      • @Zachariah
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        2810 months ago

        Are you referring to the leopard that said it would eat your face? Yeah… shocking!

      • TruthAintEasy
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        810 months ago

        We all got caught off guard, dont feel bad. No one could have seen this coming in a million zillion kajagabillion years. Even God was fooled, not our fault

    • @Veedem
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      2610 months ago

      Exactly. Sucks to suck.

  • @thisorthatorwhatever
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    7910 months ago

    Haha, Trump increased his shares to 1 Billion shares, from 78 million. Squeezig everyone else out.

    Also, Truth Social values itself at $4Billion, LOL.

    It seems nothing here smells right, from the valuation of the company to somehow Trump declaring he has 1 billions shares of the company.

    • @assembly
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      2110 months ago

      How in the holy hell can that dumpster fire of a social media site be worth $4billion???

        • @FReddit
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          310 months ago

          The spac IPO took place a couple years ago.

          You’re talking about the de-spac, when the two companies merge and DW becomes public.

      • @baru
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        710 months ago

        How in the holy hell can that dumpster fire of a social media site be worth $4billion???

        Might be similar to selling books or shoes. It’ll be bought to give way more money than otherwise would be allowed. A wealthy donor might not be allowed to send the money directly. So they buy loads of books/shoes/etc.

      • @[email protected]
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        510 months ago

        I mean… Trump has access to A LOT of idiots that would buy his turds. He could probably sell some overvalued shares to them.

    • @grabyourmotherskeys
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      1110 months ago

      Stock split to make him feel important. I’m guessing, of course. Plus he probably thought this make the company more valuable.

  • mozz
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    5210 months ago

    The story honestly delivers much better than the simple schadenfreude that the headline would imply.

    TMTG was set to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Digital World Acquisition. However, Litinsky and Moss are now alleging in their lawsuit that Trump sought to “drastically dilute” the shares of the company in an “11th hour, pre-merger corporate maneuvering” scheme.

    Initially, Trump’s stake was 78 million shares, valued at roughly $3.5 billion. UAV’s stake in the company amounted to seven million shares valued at approximately $339 million. However, the lawsuit alleges Trump then engaged in a “dilution scheme” to increase the number of total shares to one billion, which they said had “no legitimate business purpose.” UAV accused Trump of possibly scheming to distribute the additional shares among himself and his family, while significantly decreasing their stake in the company to less than 1%.

    “[UAV was] promised 8.6 percent of this company and sadly its business partners are baselessly trying to renege,” Litinsky and Moss’ attorney, Christopher J. Clark — who has previously represented Hunter Biden, Elon Musk and Mark Cuban — told the Post.

    “They feel like: We made Truth Social for you. You get 90 percent. But some people just aren’t happy with 90 percent.”

    It’s like a perfect Russian-nesting-doll storm of greed, incompetence, and malice. In ordinary circumstances, I would say it’s plausible that the whole thing is a ploy to delay the IPO, because no one would be greedy and illogical enough to fuck up the process of inflating their 90% stake by spending any attention on a craven and self-defeating attempt to claw the last 10% away from the people who are, as far as I know, still actually doing all the work.

    But this is Trump. Craven and self-defeating is in him at a molecular level. I would guess that some lawyer of his has already been on the receiving end of a HUGE yelling fit about how unfair it is that someone would try to stop him taking the remaining 10% as is his God given right.

    • @Geobloke
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      1710 months ago

      To be fair, he really needs that last $339 million

    • @khannie
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      1010 months ago

      Yeah the article is fascinating. I’m really surprised that the company constitution didn’t have anti-dilution built into it though. That’s a child level error when getting into business with someone like Trump.

      Still shocked they gave him 90% just for his name essentially. Also surprised at just how high it’s valued.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        They also claimed they were going to become a streaming platform that would replace Netflix and Disney+ and they would have 80 million users in their first year, pretty sure most of that valuation is imaginary. Didn’t they only make it to around 5 million users?

  • @[email protected]
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    4110 months ago

    You know, I’m starting to think this Trump guy doesn’t know how to accurately measure the value of assets.

    Is there some sort of money banana we can use for reference?

  • @[email protected]
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    2910 months ago

    It’s strange. You can see everyone getting fucked and chucked as soon as they hop into bed with right wing populists like Trump, yet there’s still a queue outside the bedroom door.

    I can only assume that they like being stiffed, and this is somehow their secret inner kink.

  • @[email protected]
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    1910 months ago

    https://web.archive.org/web/20240229202618/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/no-legitimate-business-purpose-trump-sued-by-truth-social-business-partners/ar-BB1j7hc6 :

    Former President Donald Trump is now being accused in a lawsuit of intentionally devaluing the media company he co-owns with two associates who met him as contestants on his reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

    https://web.archive.org/web/20240229202348/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/truth-social-lawsuit-trump-media-founders/ :

    The case could complicate a long-delayed bid by Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the social network Truth Social, to merge with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition and become a publicly traded company.

    That merger deal, which could value Trump’s stake in the company at more than $3 billion, would offer the former president a financial lifeline at a time when he is facing more than $454 million in penalties from a civil fraud judgment this month in New York.

    • FuglyDuck
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      2210 months ago

      So. Bribery.

      Cuz no way is truth social worth 3 billion.

        • FuglyDuck
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          10 months ago

          only $464 million to go! (and…counting… he better start an Only Fans or something, get ahead of that interest.)

  • Hyperreality
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    1510 months ago

    If Trump loses the election, I’m still hedging my bets, it’s going to be glorious seeing all the rats flee or turn on each other. Clearly we’re already seeing some realise the ship may be sinking.

    • @MojoMcJojo
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      510 months ago

      I hope so, I’m worried the swamp will fester. A lot of money went around because of him.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        He is also a black hole of Republican financing though, so many donations to Trump‘s legal defense means a lot fewer dollars to go to other Republican candidates. It isn’t easy to be in the shadow of Trump.