Chamath Palihapitiya Explains How Trump Can Own The Libs, Literally

Oh, well this is fun.

Unless you have been living under a mound of founder-dumped SPAC shares, you likely saw news of the meme-fication of the $DWAC SPAC when it was announced last week that it would merge with Donald Trump's new media company.

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Shares quickly rose from $10 (standard SPAC rate) to as high $131 on Friday before settling back down at around $64 per share today, giving the combined entity a $2.3 billion valuation.

BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!

Order now, and $DWAC will throw in its patented Giza sheets... which in this case is the additional 80% of value Trump brings once the deal closes, giving this baby a valuation of ~$10 billion. They're our fluffiest valuation yet!

It was $20 bil at the high and at the time of the All In recording.

For the first time, MAGA types and anti-cancel culture supporters can invest in Donald Trump and what professes to be an anti-censorship media company.

As they often do, the Besties on All In - after a brief respite to debate the merits of 2012 vs. 2013 wine served by David Sacks at his poker night which he largely blew off to trade Japanese bonds* - didn't dismiss the grift entirely.

*Not sure if the Japanese bonds thing was a joke. Can never tell when the host occasionally shows up via webcam on YACHT to do the show. Not nearly as good as how he described his private jet economics in the last episode. "$6,000 in fuel, $8,500 in Pappy."

Specifically, they gave credence to the fact that this could become a real multi-platform media entity, especially if the company focuses on acquisition rather than trying to build something from scratch.

The group discussed plausible targets, like Ben Shapiro's Daily Caller (he doesn't own it) or Dan Bongino ("the dumpster fire on Facebook" per Chamath). But Chamath alluded to something more nefarious, or hilarious, depending on your view: Trump could buy the left.

Specifically, a left-leaning media outlet:

"And the more disruptive thing isn't to buy stuff on the right. It's to buy stuff in the center or even stuff on the left. Again, it's very hard if you're a public company - it's impossible actually - if Trump Media Group now has a currency and tries to acquire assets, the directors have a fiduciary responsibility to actually vote in favor of that deal because they're not allowed to look at who the buyer is and say no we don't want to do that."

"So if he puts out a reasonable fair market offer price, you know, of the closing price + 30-35%, there's not a single public company director in the world, I don't care how Democrat ticked they are, or how much a donor they are, they'll always vote the deal, because otherwise they will get personally sued. That's the liability in public markets."

"I would be very careful about this thing. This thing is going to get really serious really quickly."

👁

Can get the USA Today for a bil. Just sayin.

The list of publicly traded media companies in the low single-digit billions doesn't yield a ton of likely targets.

For what it's worth, the New York Times has a valuation of around $9 billion.

It's also worth noting Sinclair Media Group, which owns a phalanx of local news stations with a heavy right lean, has a market cap of just $2 billion.

The point is that $DWAC, and by extension the Trump Media Group, should not be taken light.

Many people have been made to look foolish over the last six years or so by not taking Trump for real, though no one underestimates his reach and influence.

What's more, the media landscape is rapidly changing. As someone who just sold an 8-figure media network, I can tell you firsthand the economics and pace of change in this space is moving so fast in ways that incumbents literally can't comprehend. The Old World - capital OW - of gaining audience and selling ads is long gone– a combination subscriptions, referral fees, products and events are the only way to make things work at scale, and no one could do some of those better than Trump. The apex of grift, if you will.

What seemed unlikely before - a politician owning a media network that includes one-to-many and many-to-many assets - is not only a possibility, it's inevitable.

A $10 billion vaporware market cap is a good place to start.

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