Microsoft now has a new influx of cash to play with, thanks to a bond offering that gives the company a whopping $8 billion to use. Microsoft filed the report on the offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier today.
In its filing, Microsoft stated that the bonds were split between $3.25 billion in 5, 10 and 30-year notes along with another 3.5 billion euros in 8 and 15-year bonds that are worth $4.8 billion in U.S. dollars. It"s by far the largest such bond offering ever made by the company.
And just how will Microsoft use all this new cash? The filing itself gives little information on that point with Microsoft claiming that the proceeds will go towards "general corporate purposes" and "funding for working capital, capital expenditures, repurchases of our capital stock, acquisitions and repayment of our existing debt."
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a new $40 billion dollar stock buy-back program, along with a dividend increase of 22 percent to its stockholders. Even with continuing reports about the decline of the PC market, Microsoft has managed to surprise many in the industry by continuing to be highly profitable. Last quarter, Microsoft reported $5.24 billion in net income.