Trump SPAC stock Digital World Acquisition Corp. plunges on delay news

The stock price of the blank-check company that has partnered with ex-President Donald Trump’s social media firm plunged Monday in late-day trading as news of the delay in the app’s launch spread on Twitter.

The company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., opened trading Monday at $87.02 per share, and spiked to as high as $97.15 earlier Monday. But the stock price began plunging around 3:30 p.m. ET, and fell to as low as $80.45 per share.

DWAC closed the trading day at $83.88 per share.

Though the stock drop was triggered as word of the delayed launch of Truth Social spread Monday, the postponement of Trump’s version of Twitter had been announced last month.

In early January, Truth Social indicated on the Apple App Store that it would launch on Feb. 21.

But Devin Nunes, the recently appointed Trump Media and Technology Group CEO, during an appearance on Jan. 23 on Fox Business said that the app would be released by March 31.

Nunes, a California Republican who until January served in the House of Representatives, cited the need to finish ongoing beta testing as the reason for the delay.

DWAC later filed a transcript of Nunes’ interview with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an acknowledgment of the significance of the delay to its business.

DWAC is a SPAC, or so-called special purpose acquisition company. SPACs raise money from equity markets and then set out to identify other firms to merge with, creating a publicly traded entity of the merged firms.

Trump announced in October that his new social media network would merge with DWAC in a deal that valued Trump Media and Technology Group at up to $1.7 billion.

Trump has said Truth Social will be a competitor to social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, both of which banned him last year for having posted statements that incited the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, when the former president’s supporters stormed the building and disrupted lawmakers’ confirmation of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.

“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American president has been silenced,” Trump said in announcing the merger.