The Rumble video platform logo on a laptop computer arranged in Hastings on Hudson, New York, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021.
Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shareholders of the special purpose acquisition company Cantor Fitzgerald Acquisition Corp. VI voted Thursday to take the video platform Rumble public.
Rumble was founded as a YouTube alternative and hosts channels for those kicked off the platform, including Infowars host Alex Jones and multiple QAnon influencers. It is scheduled to go public Monday under the ticker “RUM.” The blank check company set to take it public is led by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick.
Rumble, which says it has 78 million global monthly viewers, recently announced that it is launching exclusive shows from actor Russell Brand and journalist Glenn Greenwald. Rumble also manages ad sales for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, which Trump founded after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The Rumble vote comes soon after shareholders of a SPAC seeking to take Trump Media and Technology Group public failed to approve a deadline extension for the deal. Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. will vote again Oct. 10.
“Rumble is creating the rails to a new infrastructure that will not be bullied by cancel culture,” wrote Rumble founder Chris Pavlovski in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We are a movement that does not stifle, censor, or punish creativity and freedom of expression.”
The platform has also earned private financing from conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel as well as author and Senate candidate and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Shares of Cantor Fitzgerald Acquisition Corp. VI., soon to be RUM, were down over 16% at market close.
