The Trump SPAC Needs More Time
Also barrier options, anti-ESG and Michael Saylor’s taxes.
Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow and Monday, back on Tuesday.
Digital World Acquisition Corp. is a special-purpose acquisition company that has signed a deal to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which runs Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” network, and take it public. Like most SPACs, DWAC has a time limit to complete its deal: Its corporate charter says that, if it has not completed a merger by Sept. 8 — next Thursday — it has to close up shop and return its money to shareholders. It is definitely not going to complete its merger with TMTG by next Thursday. (The main holdup is that the US Securities and Exchange Commission needs to review and sign off on the proxy statement for that merger; the SEC has various questions.) Actually DWAC can extend that deadline by six months, if its sponsors put up some more money, but six months probably isn’t enough either. So DWAC has asked its shareholders for a longer extension: It has asked them to vote to approve an amendment to its charter to extend the deadline by a year to Sept. 8, 2023.1 The vote will be held at an online special meeting of shareholders next Tuesday, Sept. 6, two days before the current deadline.