The price of shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp. fell by more than 12% on Friday morning after the shell company’s shareholders approved a merger with the social media company owned by former President Donald Trump.
DWAC had opened the trading day at $44.20 per share, but tumbled to below $38 at some points after the vote. By noon ET, the share price was down about 3.5% from the price at the open.
The newly merged company, Trump Media, could begin trading under the new ticker DJT next week.
Trump holds a majority of shares in the new company, which would be worth $3 billion or more given Friday’s opening price for DWAC.
But the value of his forthcoming shares will be lower if DWAC shares do not recover before the merger is completed.
A total of 11% of the tradable shares of DWAC are being sold short, FactSet data shows.
This means investors holding these positions are betting the price will fall before they have to buy the shares back and return them to the entities who loaned the shares to them.
