By Helen Coster
(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media venture said on Tuesday it has entered into a technology and cloud-services agreement with Canadian video platform Rumble Inc.
As part of the agreement, Rumble will deliver video and streaming for TRUTH Social, the proposed social media app from Trump.
Rumble was launched in 2013 by tech entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski as an alternative YouTube-style site, and is popular among U.S. conservatives seeking an alternative to Big Tech. Its top trending videos include those from conservative commentators Dan Bongino and Dinesh D’Souza, as well as former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon. It is backed by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and author-turned-U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance through Narya Capital.
On Dec. 1 Rumble said it would go public by merging with blank-check firm CF Acquisition Corp VI at an initial enterprise value of $2.1 billion. The combined company will be called Rumble and is expected to list on the Nasdaq.
Former Trump administration lawyer Michael Ellis joined Rumble in November as its first-ever general counsel and corporate secretary.
The announcement from Trump Media and Technology Group came hours after Rumble said it had severed business ties https://prn.to/3dNKzaC with Tremor International and Unruly Group, companies which Rumble said had attempted to censor conservative personality Dan Bongino.
TMTG has provided few details for how it plans to create a social media platform, streaming service, news division and alternative cloud provider to compete against entrenched players in those categories.
The company said on Dec. 6 that U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, will leave Congress to become chief executive officer of the new venture, and will assume the role in January.
Nunes has been an ardent Trump supporter, voting against certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory following Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)
