How Apple Will Raise $17B in Debt to Help Fund Its $100B Return to Investors

Apple Money

An outline of Apple’s debt offerings that will help it fund its $ 100 billion capital return program to its shareholders became know today. Differing notes, offered at various maturity periods will total $ 17 billion. The company can also raise more funds in the future if it so desires to.

049da Apple Money  How Apple Will Raise $17B in Debt to Help Fund Its $100B Return to Investors

TNW:

Apple is using the debt offerings to raise funds despite its massive cash holdings. Why? Simply put, the company has a great chunk of its cash overseas, and to repatriate that currency would require it paying heavy taxes. It’s cheaper for it to borrow $ 17 billion in the United States, than it is to pay the corporate tax rate bringing that amount of money to its home shores.

According to Reuters, the $ 17 billion will be raised in the following way:

  • $ 1 billion, floating rate, three year maturity
  • $ 1.5 billion, fixed-rate, three year maturity
  • $ 2 billion, floating-rate, five year maturity
  • $ 5.5 billion fixed rate, ten year maturity
  • $ 4 billion fixed rate, five year maturity
  • $ 3 billion fixed rate, thirty year maturity

Apple has been under pressure to return some of it’s massive pile of cash back to its investors. Apple created a dividend in 2012 after years of resistance. That dividend has increased, and Apple announced recently that $ 60 billion of the $ 100 billion will go for repurchasing shares of stock.

While Apple remains an exceptionally profitable company, with margins that other companies can only dream of, it has recently come under fire as its stock has slid from record highs, and concerns about its ability to drive revenue and growth has increased among observers.

Lenovo To Buy Blackberry, Investors Are Pleased (Rumor)

Chinese electronics and computer hardware giant Lenovo is planning to buy BlackBerry, formerly Research in Motion (RIM). The news has caused BlackBerry’s shares to rise to $ 14.90 or 14% in New York Stock Exchange; the stock has risen by 26% since January of this year. If the plan materializes, Lenovo has to seek the approval of Canadian authorities since BlackBerry’s assets are valued at more than $ 335 million based on the “net benefit” factor used by the government.

lenovo blackberry buyout rumors Lenovo To Buy Blackberry, Investors Are Pleased (Rumor)

While BlackBerry’s quarterly results are due yet on March 28, officials are quick to react about the buyout as something “premature” since there could be other bidders. But they are keeping their options open though and be prudent about Lenovo’s plan. The Ontario-based company had been considering strategic options since last year in the face of falling market share with Apple and Samsung taking most of the bite. However, Lenovo needs to study the matter carefully and analyze the market well before grabbing the acquisition opportunity.

While Lenovo’s CEO is saying that the acquisition makes sense, he’s counterpart in BlackBerry simply denies the rumor and stands bewildered by the CEO’s comment although the company has downplayed its significance. Whether the acquisition rumor is true or not, one thing is certain, that sooner or later a company will indeed acquire BlackBerry.

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Reddit Looks to Investors for Help and Buzz, not Cash

06cdb Reddit Front Page  Reddit Looks to Investors for Help and Buzz, not Cash

Reddit doesn’t have a cash problem. They had $ 20 million in the bank when they were given partial independence by Conde Nast two years ago and unless they’re buying solid gold servers and platinum-plated Macs to run the site, they probably have enough to keep going without a hitch for another decade. When Techcrunch reported rumors that the social news giant was looking for investors against a $ 400 million valuation, many of us wandered why they would risk losing their status as one of the most community-driven websites on the planet by playing into the hands of profit-driven venture capitalists.

The educated speculation coming from Peter Kafka at AllThingsD is that their looking for very specific angel investors who have clout and a willingness to bring “buy-in, and input” to the company. Now that makes more sense. Despite being one of the most influential traffic, opinion, and meme-generating sites on the internet, they are still relatively obscure in the whole scheme of things. In many ways, they’ve flourished as the best-kept secret on the internet. Only the cool kids and tech-savvy people know about the plethora of images, videos, links, and discussions that make addicts out of most who can make it past the Draconian layout of the site.

The secret is getting out – over 400 million people visited the site in 2012, generating 37 billion page views – and if its going to be forced into the mainstream, they want to be ready. That’s what Reddit CEO Yishan Wong wants help with from investors. If they’re on the verge of going big, they might as well control how it happens.

Reddit wants high-quality heavy-hitters from the Silicon Valley jungle who will give instant credibility with their name and sagely advice with their words. It’s not a money play. They’re looking to get $ 1 million dollars from investors when they could easily pull 50X that amount. It’s a token investment but an important symbol for the imminent popularity at hand. It’s a safe way to go that will keep the site from having any pressure to turn a profit for the sake of meeting investor expectations. In many ways, investors will be privileged to be among the elite who can buy their way into a site that makes things happen, that spikes the traffic of websites lucky enough to catch their eye, and that sees content before it hits the depths of Facebook/Tumblr viral status.

Reddit sets the tastes of the internet in ways that so few know about now. This play is one designed to put the unknowing world on alert. Reddit is coming. You were warned.

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Facebook IPO Release Pushed Until May: Stock Investors Await

We cannot deny the fact that the upcoming Facebook IPO release is definitely one of the most awaited events nowadays. And according to some reports, Facebook’s IPO release will be happening in May. For quite some time, Facebook has managed to attain its current status through private funding and has also sought some investors at times that they needed it. IPO release is not really something new at all because we have already heard of other companies who are planning for their own IPO release as well. What will be the effect of Facebook’s IPO release?

facebook ipo zuckerberg 1 Facebook IPO Release Pushed Until May: Stock Investors Await

Apparently, if the IPO would push through, Facebook is expected to raise as much as $ 10 billion. Well, it is really interesting to see how Facebook will be doing after this considering the fact that this social networking site has already made a lot of money because of the various services the company has been working on. A lot of investors may be really interested with Facebook, don’t you think? This is why it is not really surprising why everyone seems to be looking forward to this upcoming IPO release.

Based on some reports, Facebook will start to offer its shares to the general public starting May, most probably within the third week. Because of this Facebook also needs to file its documents with SEC as soon as possible since it will still undertake some review that usually lasts for two to three months. However, May is not yet really final and may still change depending on some factors.

This Facebook IPO release has been a subject of many rumors and speculations for the past few months since its $ 100 billion offering is expected to be one of the biggest IPO release ever and also the largest of any tech company as well. For sure a lot of tech companies or even other non-tech companies will be closely watching on this Facebook IPO release particularly those who are also planning for their own IPO release like Yelp.

Well, it seems that a lot of favorable things happening in Facebook. So let us watch out for more updates.

Pinoytutorial Techtorial » Social Networking

Zynga (ZNGA) Stocks: Unstable, Falls Down — Should Investors Worry?

While Zynga is one of the most profitable social gaming companies online, there comes a time when its stocks can fall down and have investors worried. Zynga has made its Initial Public Offering (IPO) last Friday morning and their stock price was a bit lower than expected, with an asking price of more or less $ 10.00.

zynga nasdaq ipo 1 Zynga (ZNGA) Stocks: Unstable, Falls Down    Should Investors Worry?

When it debuted in Nasdaq, it started trading at $ 11.00. But on the same day, it fell to $ 9.50 until it stopped permanently at $ 10.00 as of press time. This IPO from Zynga (ZNGA) is designed to raise $ 1 billion, but its reception was very far compared to other social media IPOs from the past months. For example, Groupon’s shares jumped to around 40% after it went public last November 4, while Linkedln’s stock price doubled on its IPO day last May. The reason for this low IPO reception is not that clear for now, but there are some theories.

For one, Zynga rely its profits from the games in Facebook which means that it needs to have the social-networking site in order to have an income. But as it turns out, Zynga and Facebook are not always in good terms despite both relying on each other. Another theory is their monthly active users are going down compared to December 2010, thus making them pressured to keep users engaged in their games and to bring new players as well. This is the reason why they frequently do promotional marketing with celebrities, movie properties and musicians. And lastly, their figures have lowered from last year, making investors worry that if they don’t do something, Zynga might go down.

For now, we have yet to wait on Zynga and see if it has raised their targeted $ 1 billion. The social media company is not sticking to just Facebook now so they can increase their profit. They are also veering for Google+ and iOS as well as plan on launching their own Zynga-based platform for gameplay outside of Facebook.

Pinoytutorial Techtorial » Social Networking