Learn the trade...
For those not familiar with the stock market, this was clearly telegraphed when his media company used a SPAC.
When a company goes public (IPO), they have to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The process is pretty rigorous and has standard forms that you need to fill out or hurdles that you need to get over:
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- Company financials and future growth strategy
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- Corporate governance
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- Risks and issues both internal and external
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- Lots of stuff on tech readiness, vulnerabilities and the like.
The bigger the company the harder this is to do correctly, and the more external companies you'll need to verify and underwrite your findings.
But let's say you have a poorly structured company you want to take public. DodgyCo will never get through the IPO gauntlet, so you create a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called CleanCo. They have fantastic technology methodology, a strong board and TONS of funding. CleanCo sails through all the SEC gates and Monday morning they go live on the stock market.
Monday afternoon CleanCo buys out DodgyCo, effectively making DodgyCo public without the hassle of actually having to operate like a grownup company.
This is what Trump Media Company did.
The accounting firm that “cleared” the financials was found out to be an accounting mill. No longer allowed to audit any public company.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Get bent.