Video service Rumble, a right-wing competitor to YouTube, announced Monday that the platform will become a publicly traded company.
Rumble, a conservative video media platform backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, will trade under the ticker symbol RUM after a massive deal that has valued the company at more than $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. The merger went through with a blank-check firm, CF Acquisition Corp. VI, a special purpose acquisition company with backing from Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, the outlet noted.
The merger is anticipated to provide Rumble with $400 million in proceeds, Bloomberg reported. Despite being founded in 2013, the platform only really caught on during the 2020 presidential election as conservatives grew exasperated with content moderation on mainstream platforms, Bloomberg continued.
We are adding “🏴☠️ $RUM” to our Twitter name.
Without rum, the colonists may never have fought to win the freedom that Americans enjoy today – the very freedom that Rumble exists to protect.https://t.co/9gtK4OiW3K
— Rumble – 🏴☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) September 18, 2022
By August 2022, Rumble’s monthly app installations flew up 250%, reaching seven million app installs, Bloomberg noted. It joins other platforms such as Parler, Gettr and Truth Social, all of which have been downloaded millions of times, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Country Music Star John Rich Explains What He Thinks Real Progress Is For Americans)
The platform plans to create a unique cloud service to ensure continuous operations, separated from providers, and an ad network hosting Trump Media and Technology Group as the first publisher. “We create technologies that are designed to be immune to cancel culture, because everyone benefits when people have access to more ideas, diverse opinions and dialogue,” Rumble wrote in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “We are on a mission to protect a free and open internet.”