A social media company and a nuclear fusion startup walk into an SEC filing. Trump Media & Technology Group filed a Form 425 with the SEC on Thursday, the routine paperwork companies file while a merger is pending.
The SEC EDGAR index page shows the filing and its header data, but not the body, so here is what we can confirm and what we can’t.
The filing ties to a deal that has nothing to do with social media. Trump Media, the parent of Truth Social, agreed in December 2025 to merge with TAE Technologies, a nuclear fusion company. This Trump Media merger is the one still waiting on approvals.
What the Trump Media merger actually is
It is an all-stock deal. In its December 2025 announcement, the company valued the transaction at more than $6 billion. When it closes, Trump Media shareholders and TAE holders would each own about 50% of the combined company.
Trump Media also agreed to front TAE up to $200 million in cash at signing. It owed another $100 million once it filed the registration statement. A promissory note went along with the merger agreement, according to the S-4 registration statement.
Trump Media filed that S-4 on September 30. As of early October, the SEC had not declared it effective.
Here’s the thing about the Trump Media TAE deal price
The companies priced the deal off Trump Media’s share price from last December. At that time, each fully diluted TAE share was worth $53.89. Since then, DJT has slid. It fell 7% to $6.48 in afternoon trading on October 19, according to 24/7 Wall St.
So the headline number is a snapshot from a very different stock price, a bit like quoting a house value from before the roof caved in. I couldn’t find an updated deal value anywhere. Big stock-driven combinations can look very different once markets move, as the Skydance and Paramount deal for Warner Bros. showed.
We also looked for the earnout or payout terms some readers might expect to find. They aren’t in what we found. The earnout shares in older filings belong to Trump Media’s earlier SPAC merger, not this one. This is a stock swap, not a cash payout to shareholders.
What happens to Truth Social
This is the question everyone should be asking about the Truth Social parent merger. In June, the companies dropped a plan to spin Truth Social and other media assets into a separate company. According to Benzinga, the combined board is supposed to weigh “strategic alternatives” for the legacy media business after closing.
That is corporate language, and it settles nothing.
It does mean Truth Social’s long-term home inside this company is an open question.
What comes next for the DJT merger
The SEC still has to declare the S-4 effective. After that, Trump Media shareholders vote and TAE holders act on a consent solicitation. The stated goal is to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. The deal’s timeline has already slipped once: the original target was mid-2026. Investors tracking energy bets may also want to see how energy earnings are outpacing tech.
Kevin McGurn, Trump Media’s interim CEO, called the September filing “a key step toward closing this merger.” Michl Binderbauer runs TAE as CEO and CTO.
One caution: I could not read the body of Thursday’s Form 425, so I can’t tell you whether it is an investor deck, a transcript or a press statement.
The question to watch is simple. Will shareholders still want a fusion company at $6.48 a share?
