(Bloomberg) — Salesforce Inc. is planning to sell as much as $25 billion of debt to fund a share buyback, according to people with knowledge of the matter, in what would be the software firm’s biggest-ever note sale.
The company is targeting a US bond offering of at least $20 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details are private. They added the notes could be sold as soon as this week, but the timing could change.
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Salesforce mandated JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. to arrange fixed-income investor calls for Tuesday.
The software firm — which has become a poster child for Wall Street anxieties about the impact of artificial intelligence on established vendors — on Feb. 26 announced a $50 billion stock buyback program and 5.8% dividend increase alongside a better-than-expected sales forecast.
A debt-funded buyback is “a material shift in financial policy, including a higher tolerance for debt in the capital structure,” Moody’s Ratings said Tuesday as it downgraded Salesforce by a notch to A2. S&P Global Ratings, meanwhile, lowered its outlook to negative.
The company last tapped the US bond market in 2021, when it raised $8 billion to help fund its acquisition of Slack.
JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and Wells Fargo declined to comment. Salesforce and Bank of America didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Salesforce’s looming debt offering comes as Amazon.com Inc. is looking to raise at least $37 billion from the sale of dollar- and euro-denominated notes, according to people familiar with the matter.
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