Marking the biggest bond sale of the year so far, technology giant Microsoft has raised $17bn from a bond issuance.
The deal marks the second highest bond sale by the company following the sale of around $20bn in bonds to fund its acquisition of social network LinkedIn.
The latest issuance attracted decent response from market participants, enabling the company to increase the initially estimated bond offering size of $14bn.
Microsoft is expected to use the proceeds from the sale to finance general corporate purposes, including repayment of short-term debt that was raised to fund its $26bn acquisition of LinkedIn, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In December last year, the company announced that it has obtained all the regulatory approvals required to close the LinkedIn acquisition after getting the green light from the European Commission.
After going for its first bond sale in 2009, Microsoft has made several bond offerings despite continuing an ambitious share-repurchase program.
In September 2016, it announced a $40bn stock buyback programme after nearing completion of its previous share-repurchase programme.
Microsoft reported a net income $5.2bn of the second quarter ended 26 January this year compared to a profit of $5.02bn in the same period a year earlier.
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, Microsoft’s long-term debt totaled $59.3bn at the end of last year.
