Bussiness
Trump Media stock slumps 6% after a new audit confirms the company lost $58 million last year
Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s social media site Truth Social, filed a re-audited version of its finances Monday — and the results weighed on the shares.
The documents, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, amends the company’s registration statement filed on April 15 and includes a re-audit of the company’s financial statements spanning from Dec. 31, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2022. The audits were carried out by Trump Media’s new accountant Semple, Marchal & Cooper (SMC).
The number of shares of common stock that TMTG seeks to register is unchanged, the company noted. Trump Media said on April 15 that it is registering the resale of up to almost 21.5 million new shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants, up to about 146 million shares of common stock, and up to about 4 million warrants to purchase common stock.
“I want to thank SMC for serving as our independent auditor and enabling us to file an Amended Registration Statement, which we hope the SEC will promptly review,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Shares of Trump Media, which trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT, fell more than 6% on Monday afternoon following the disclosure. The audited finances confirmed that Trump Media suffered a net loss of $58.2 million during the 12 months ended Dec. 31.
The media company replaced its former audit firm BF Borgers with SMC last month after the Securities and Exchange Commission permanently barred the company from serving as accountants.
The SEC charged Borgers and its managing partner, Benjamin Borgers, with failure to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) standards in audits and reviews of more than 1,500 SEC filings between January 2021 and June 2023. Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, called BF Borgers a “sham audit mill.”
Trump Media first hired BF Borgers on Jan. 22, 2022, when the former president’s firm was still a privately-held company. The accountant was still Trump Media’s independent registered public accounting firm as of April 1, according to a filing with the SEC.