His initials as a “ticker” (DJT) and a grand entry on the New York Stock Exchange. For its first day of trading on the Nasdaq, Donald J. Trump’s media group, called TMTG, took off almost 60% at the opening of the markets. The title even had to be briefly suspended due to excessive volatility. TMTG is mainly composed of the social network Truth Social, launched by the former American president in 2022. It went public by merging with a vehicle already listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Digital World Acquisition Corp., via what s is called a Spac (Special Purpose Acquisition Company).

A successful start which values ​​the 58% that Donald Trump holds in TMTG at around 5 billion dollars. The former American president will, however, have to wait six months to be able to resell his first shares, because the green light given to the creation of Spac was accompanied by blocking clauses.

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Does this surge in the price reflect optimism about the potential for recruiting users of the social network in the event of the election of Donald Trump, who promised to make it his preferred communication channel? Because TMTG’s current accounts alone cannot explain investors’ enthusiasm.

According to Bloomberg, the company lost $49 million over nine months, for a turnover of only $3.4 million. In February, the Truth Social network had 5 million active users (mobile and site), according to SimilarWeb, far from its main competitor, X, and its 250 million daily visitors.

For the record, Donald Trump had already used the DJT ticker for his first hotel and casino company, introduced to Wall Street in 1995, again with great fanfare. He withdrew it nine years later.