Apple today filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hoping to sell $5 billion worth of new debt according to reports.
Managed by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, the offer's monetary specifics haven't yet been revealed by Apple, but the company says the money will be used to cover "general corporate purposes, including repurchases of our common stock and payment of dividends under our program to return capital to shareholders, funding for working capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions and repayment of debt."
As Bloomberg's Lisa Abramowicz points out, much of the proceeds the company receives from the bond sale are undoubtedly going to buybacks and dividend payments.
Except for rewarding shareholders, of course. Proceeds to go to buybacks & dividend payments — Lisa Abramowicz (@LisaAbramowicz1) February 2, 2015
This follows the company's previous bond sale last November, where Apple notably began issuing bonds in euros. That sale saw Apple looking to raise €2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) for the usual "general corporate purposes," again primarily share buybacks and dividend payments.
Today's prospectus comes on the heels of the company's record-breaking earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2015, posting revenue of $74.6 billion in the quarter, and subsequently seeing a noticeable bump in shares of its stock when the market opened last Friday.
While the company holds roughly $178 billion in cash and marketable securities, much of that cash is held outside of the United States and would currently be subject to significant taxes if brought back to the U.S. to be used for stock buybacks and dividends. As a result, Apple has been pursuing bond sales at very favorable interest rates as a cheaper means of funding these initiatives, repaying the bonds from ongoing operations over time.
Update Feb 3 4:52 PT: The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has increased the size of its bond deal to $6.5 billion.
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Top Rated Comments
You're very confused if you think the White House passes bills. Obama proposed a bill, but given neither house of Congress is held by Democrats, I doubt there will be any traction on it. It's nothing but rhetoric and politics from Obama.
Companies like Apple need to pay the country that they base themselves out of, use its resources, and proudly call home no matter if the money is made overseas. Not doing so only cheats the US tax payer on top of the subsidies the already enjoy.
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It's all rhetoric and politics from everybody, period, full stop.
Apple pays all applicable taxes with their associated U.S. operations, including employment, local and other taxes.