Twitter Inc seeking up to US$1.5-billion as it taps debt markets for first time
Twitter Inc. is tapping debt markets for the first time, with plans to raise as much as US$1.5 billion to invest in acquisitions and expansion.
The San Francisco-based microblogging company is selling the convertible bonds in two US$650 million pieces, one maturing in five years and one coming due in seven years, according to a regulatory filing today. The size of the offering may increase to US$1.5 billion if the banks involved decide to participate.
Twitter, which isn’t projected to be profitable this year, has been investing to build up its advertising business and add engineers who can help tweak its product to appeal to a broader audience. Executives see an opportunity in the debt market to raise more cash cheaply with little immediate dilution of their shareholders’ ownership, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company was inspired by technology leaders, including Google Inc. and Netflix Inc., successfully offering debt while borrowing remains inexpensive, the person said.
Natalie Miyake, a spokeswoman for Twitter, declined to comment.
The decision comes two months after Anthony Noto, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who helped with Twitter’s Nov. 6 initial public offering, replaced Mike Gupta as the company’s chief financial officer.
Twitter’s Acquisitions
Twitter raised US$1.82 billion in its IPO. The company has made several small acquisitions, including the purchase of social-data provider Gnip Inc. for US$134.1 million in May. Twitter also recently agreed to buy CardSpring Inc., a service that lets users redeem deals and discounts through merchants’ tweets, for undisclosed terms.
The company has a revolving credit line of US$1 billion, which it hadn’t tapped as of June 30.
Companies are selling record amounts of debt, seeking to lock in cheap borrowing costs amid a sixth year of near-zero interest rates from the Federal Reserve. U.S. corporate bond sales topped US$1.07 trillion in the first eight months of the year, an all-time high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. technology companies have issued US$57 billion in bonds so far this year. That compares with US$63 billion in the same period last year.
Google, owner of the world’s largest Internet search engine, sold bonds in February for the first time in three years to refinance US$1 billion of maturing debt, while video-streaming service Netflix sold US$400 million in senior notes the same month to help finance capital spending.作者: oldhorse 时间: 2014-9-10 17:09
