(Bloomberg) -- The blank-check firm working to take Trump Media & Technology Group public scored a win after a court declined to expedite a lawsuit, opening the door to investor approval of the transaction.

Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is scheduled to host an investor vote to approve the Trump Media merger on March 22, said a Delaware judge denied a request from Patrick Orlando’s ARC Global Investments II that threatened to delay the deal’s completion. 

Shares rose about 3% on Thursday after sliding 14% the previous day even after former President Donald Trump swept the Super Tuesday primaries. 

In its lawsuit, ARC challenged the conversion rate proposed for its founder’s stake, with the firm arguing that it should have an increased position in the new company. Orlando is the former CEO of Digital World, which proposed to place disputed shares into an escrow account upon the deal’s completion. The judge adopted that proposal in saying it wasn’t necessary to speed up the case.

“It’s a win for Digital World — their move to escrow the shares was elegant,” said Usha Rodrigues, a professor of corporate law at the University of Georgia School of Law. “It took the wind out of the sails of ARC’s argument that they had to enjoin the business combination or risk irreparable harm.”

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In the March 5 ruling, the court gave Digital World until Friday to propose a schedule for the case to be resolved within five months of the merger.

Investors will now focus on the March 22 shareholder vote, which will enable the long-delayed deal to be completed. The SPAC merger was announced in October 2021, and has faced a bevy of delays, from regulatory investigations to the costly need of courting retail investors for more time.

Read more: Trump’s $4 Billion SPAC Deal Hit by Wave of Lawsuits Over Shares

Another lawsuit remains outstanding. Trump Media co-founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, both former contestants on The Apprentice, claim Trump is trying to dilute their stakes in the company. They also say that the more than $500 million Trump owes in legal judgments makes the merger a possibly “existential” liquidity event for him and might be motivating a “last-minute stock grab” at their expense.

With Digital World trading around $41.50, the former president’s stake is worth roughly $3.3 billion on paper with more than $1.1 billion in potential earnouts depending on how shares perform. The cash infusion could come at a critical time given the massive penalties he’s facing from two legal cases.

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