Trump Media Sheds $3 Billion in Value as X Return Adds to Issues
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s appearance on X Monday was the latest headwind for his own, competing social-media platform, adding to a swoon that’s wiped out $3 billion in market value in the last month.
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Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. has struggled with mounting losses and stagnant user numbers, sending the shares down 40% since July 15. They now trade just 6% above the lowest close since the company went public through a blank-check merger in March.
Monday’s conversation with Elon Musk on his site — not Trump’s Truth Social that was setup as a competitor after the former president was barred from Twitter in 2021 — underscored the problems facing the fledgling company.
An argument for investors to buy into Trump Media has been that if he were to win in November he would use his Truth Social platform as a megaphone from the White House. But the number of daily active users has been modest, failing to top one million worldwide in the past year, according to data compiled by Apptopia.
The stock’s slide has coincided with a drop in the implied probability that Trump will win in November, according to betting market PredictIt. Whether Trump Media shares are an accurate barometer of investor views of his chances remains an open question, the shares seem to be moving somewhat in-line with his prospect.
The company has continued to lose money with sales remaining lackluster. Trump Media lost more than $16 million in the second quarter while delivering less than $1 million in revenue. For the first half of the year, the company lost $344 million, mostly due to paper losses on derivatives, while posting about $1.6 million in sales.
After a flurry of activity on X Monday — promoting his candidacy and the conversation with Musk — Trump has not posted on the app since, his page shows. He has, however, posted more than 30 times on Truth Social since the appearance with Musk, which had roughly 25 million people tune in, X shows.
Despite the slide over the past month, and a broader pullback of 63% from a March peak, the company still has a market capitalization of roughly $4.7 billion. On a price-to-sales basis, the stock trades at a more than 1,400 multiple which out-paces that of market darling Nvidia Corp. by about 40-times.
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