Microsoft sells US$17b in second bond deal in six months

New York

MICROSOFT Corp found ample demand for its US$17 billion bond offering, allowing it to cut borrowing rates on its second multibillion note offering in six months.

The tech giant received at least twice as many orders as it had bonds to sell, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. The longest portion of the offering, which generally refinanced debt maturing soon, was a US$2 billion, 40-year bond with a 4.5 per cent coupon that yields 1.4 percentage points above Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's down from initial discussions of about 1.55 percentage points.