United Atlantic Ventures, a major shareholder of Trump mediahas sold nearly 11 million shares of the corporate, in response to a regulatory filing Thursday, weeks after a federal judge cleared the way in which for the transaction.
The move left UAV — an investment partnership of former “Apprentice” contestants Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss — now owning just 100 shares of Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social app.
The sum of money UAV received from last week's stock sales was not disclosed.
But the worth range at which DJT shares traded during that point – which saw unusually high trading volume – suggests that UAV would have received between $128 million and $170 million for its shares.
UAV was allowed to sell its 5.4% stake in Trump Media after a lock-up agreement barring company insiders from selling expired on September 19.
UAV is the one known insider to sell shares after that day.
Litinsky and Moss presented the concept of a social media company to former President Donald Trump, the star of the “Apprentice” show, and founded Trump Media with him in 2021.
The two later fell out with Trump and have since been embroiled in legal disputes with Trump Media over their shares.
Trump owns 114.7 million DJT shares, greater than 56% of Trump Media shares.
Following UAV's sale of its stake, the one other company holding greater than 5% of Trump Media shares is ARC Global Investments II LLC, which holds just over 11 million shares.
DJT stock closed Thursday at $13.98 per share, down about 1%.
Republican presidential candidate Trump said on September 13, “I have absolutely no intention of selling his shares in the company after the lock-up period expires.”
CNBC has reached out to Trump Media and an attorney for UAV for comment on the Litinsky and Moss sales.
Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that UAV closed on March 25, the day the corporate announced a merger with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. concluded, owned 7,525,000 shares of Trump Media stock, which led to Trump's company going public.
UAV later received a further 3.44 million shares, which were issued “without additional consideration based on the performance of our common stock,” Trump Media said in a SEC filing on September fifth.
This meant that UAV owned greater than 10.96 million shares.
Thursday's Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosing UAV's sale of the overwhelming majority of those shares didn’t provide dates or prices for the sell-off.
Trump Media had warned in a Florida lawsuit that UAV planned to sell “all of its shares as quickly as possible” once the lock-up period expired.
UAV's disclosure of the sale in a 13G filing with the SEC followed a ruling by a Federal judge in Delaware on behalf of UAV in an motion against a securities transfer agent, Odyssey Transfer and Trust Company.
This decision prohibited Odyssey from interfering with the transfer of Trump Media shares from UAV to UAV after the lock-up period had expired.
Odyssey had indicated before the ruling that it will seek instructions from Trump Media regarding the stock transfer, and Trump Media had declined to say whether it will allow Odyssey to lift transfer restrictions without favoring a shareholder.
Trump Media stock jumped in its trading debut on the Nasdaq, hitting an intraday high of $79.38 per share, pushing the corporate's market capitalization to over $10 billion.
But the worth of DJT fell quickly.
In recent months, the corporate suffered a downturn that worn out greater than 80% of the corporate's value at its post-merger peak. The company's market capitalization is currently lower than $2.8 billion.
Analysts view DJT as a meme stock whose wild price swings reflect investor support for Trump, the bulk shareholder and Truth Social's essential attraction, reasonably than its business fundamentals.
Trump Media has reported net losses of about $344 million on revenue of lower than $2 million in its last two quarterly earnings reports.
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