Trump's Media & Technology posts $238 million Q2 loss, narrows strategy

Trump's Media & Technology unit reported a quarterly loss of $238 million for the second quarter ended in June and said it will exit several nascent business lines as it tightens its focus.

The company behind the Truth Social platform said the loss in the quarter was more than ten times the level a year earlier, and that loss per share rose from $0.08 to $0.86. Revenue for the period was $1.7 million, more than double the prior-year figure.

Refocus on core social network

New chief executive Kevin McGurn said the firm will largely abandon expansion into areas such as online gambling and crypto and instead concentrate on its social-media operations. "We made a disciplined decision to focus our time and resources on our most important initiatives. We will say no to things or change course when necessary," McGurn said.

A central element of the plan is the Truth API, which offers firms on Wall Street early access to posts from the platform's most-followed accounts, including President Donald Trump. McGurn rejected criticism that such a service increases conflicts of interest, saying: "Providing licensed public data in real time through commercial APIs is an established business practice in the technology, financial information and media industries. This is no different."

The company also said that a previously announced initiative, nuclear fusion, will continue through a planned merger with energy firm TAE Technologies by the end of the year. Management attributed much of the weaker performance in the quarter to losses tied to declines in the value of bitcoin and the Cronos token.

Trump Media said it already has 10 customers for the Truth API, which are charged between $60,000 and $100,000 per month. At quarter end the company held more than $400 million in cash and short-term investments, $1.2 billion in bitcoin and related assets, and about $1 billion of debt in convertible notes due in 2028.

Photo: Rawpixel / CC0