Trump Media and Technology Group posts more than $490m net loss in first public quarter

Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building as the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp is displayed earlier this year. Photo /Frank Franklin II, AP, File

Trump Media and Technology Group, the owner of former President Donald Trump’s social networking site Truth Social, lost more than $300 million (NZ$491.2m) last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.

For the three-month period that ended March 31, the company posted a loss of $327.6 million, which it said included $311 million in non-cash expenses related to its merger with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was essentially a pile of cash looking for a target to merge with.

It’s an example of what’s called a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, which can give young companies quicker and easier routes to getting their shares trading publicly.

A year earlier, Trump Media posted a loss of $210,300.

Trump Media said it collected $770,500 in revenue in the first quarter, largely from its “nascent advertising initiative.” That was down from $1.1 million a year earlier.

“At this early stage in the Company’s development, TMTG remains focused on long-term product development, rather than quarterly revenue,” Trump Media said in its earnings news release.

Earlier this month, the company fired an auditor that federal regulators recently charged with “massive fraud.”

The former President’s media company dismissed BF Borgers as its independent public accounting firm on May 3, delaying the filing of the quarterly earnings report, according to a securities filings.

Trump Media had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned in July 2023, and another that was terminated its the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.

Shares of Trump Media climbed 36 cents to $48.74 in after-hours trading. The stock, which trades under the ticker symbol “DJT,” began trading on Nasdaq in March and peaked at nearly $80 in late March.