And now, the dump
It appears that $6 billion is probably an excessive valuation for a company with no revenue and no prospect of earning any revenue:
Shares of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company have fallen so much that his onetime $6 billion stake is now worth about $2 billion.
The stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group, closed Wednesday at $16.98, and is down more than 74 percent from the high-water mark it hit after Trump Media’s merger in March with a publicly traded shell company.
Mr. Trump is the single largest shareholder of Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, owning 115 million shares — a roughly 60 percent stake.
The slide in the share price has accelerated over the past few weeks as the presidential campaign has heated up and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has narrowly overtaken Mr. Trump in most national polls. Shares of Trump Media often have risen and fallen in tandem with investor perception of how Mr. Trump is doing in the presidential race.
The stock is also falling in advance of a pivotal date — the expiration of a contractual lockup that has precluded Mr. Trump from selling any of his shares. But on Sept. 19, he and other early investors can start selling shares, which could further depress Trump Media’s stock price.
Of course, even at 25 cents on the dollar there’s still plenty of profit left for Trump. And for all the people who bought shares to display their fealty to Emperor Trump and are about to take a massive bath, I can’t say they deserve any better at this late date.