'Total disaster' hits Mike Lindell's attempted social media stock rollout: reporter
Mike Lindell is trying to raise some cash for his FrankSpeech social media platform by making it a publicly traded stock, but former Daily Beast journalist Zachary Petrizzo says that it's not going to plan so far.
Writing on Twitter, Petrizzo contends that "MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s attempted Frank Speech stock rollout has been a total disaster," which he says "started with him telling his followers the incorrect ticker for the penny stock that trades OTC.
"Confused MAGA followers who couldn’t find it on Robinhood ... got mad at Lindell," he reported.
And that's not all: Petrizzo also notes that Lindell's merger partner, a media holding company called InCapta, Inc., has an accumulated deficit of nearly $150 million.
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And to cap it all off, Petrizzo writes, "It’s clear that Lindell has been struggling with the concept of NYSE v. OTC markets. (Oversimplification, but OTC markets are like a flea market compared to NYSE being a department store. At a flea market, more potential for fake merchandise, i.e., pump & dump schemes.)"
As Gizmodo reported last week, Lindell is taking FrankSpeech public through "a reverse stock split, in which a company’s shares are consolidated."
Forbes has described this kind of maneuver as "rare among large, stable companies and more typical of those struggling to maintain their listing on exchanges with minimum price requirements."
FrankSpeech is a social media platform Lindell created in 2021, positioning it as an alternative to mainstream social media platforms that he believes censor conservative voices and restrict free speech.
Since its launch, FrankSpeech has been embroiled in several controversies. The platform has faced criticism for allowing the spread of misinformation and extremist content. Lindell has also repeatedly used FrankSpeech to solicit donations for his legal battles against voting machine companies like Dominion Voting Systems, which have sued him for defamation over his election fraud claims.