Except that the information went unnoticed. The British agency Reuters may have given the details, but the 10 billion dollars raised by Meta are of no interest to anyone. For a company valued at 479 billion dollars, it is sure that the scales do not surprise, and that a billion more or less in the coffers is worth nothing, for a company which earned more than 10 million euros per hour in 2020.
Facebook uses this joker card for the first time
Until then, among its investors, Facebook mainly owed accounts to its shareholders. Dividends were not added to bond settlements, these financial securities which correspond to loans with a fixed interest rate and a repayment date. But that was until August 9th. Meta (Facebook) has actually announced that it has raised $10 billion in bonds.
Facebook clarified that $30 billion in orders had been placed by investors, and that the proposed bonds go on maturities ranging from 5 to 40 years, with a stronger trend for long-term securities. With such an operation, Meta is now among the companies holding debt, a profile that other big tech like Apple and Intel have also joined this week: Apple raised $5.5 billion and Intel $6 billion.
For the more novices, it is important to note that a bond is distinguished from an action by the difference that here reimbursement and interest are not conditional on the results of the company.
Why rush into bonds? In the macroeconomic context, Reuters says investors may not encounter many more windows of opportunity in the coming months as interest rates rise. Meta is also in a situation where the noose is tightening around competition (TikTok in particular), advertising revenue and the global recession.
All of this makes it clearer why Facebook needs the money. His cash flow is running out and to fund such a large domain as Metavers, where common opinion is still far from being in tune with this change in behavior and this new support, it will surely take more than a decade before potential returns on investment are not observed.
But hey, investors give it between 5 and 40 years.