In a surprising move yesterday, Cisco Systems released it is raising $4 billion in cash through senior unsecured debt offering
Cisco said it will use $500 million of the proceeds to repay some old debts.
Why a company with $30 billion in the bank needs to raise more money?
$26 billion of the $30 billion that Cisco has in the bank are currently in overseas accounts, making it harder for the San Jose, Calif.-company to use it in case of a very very large acquisition, of $4 billion or more.
Indeed, Cisco CEO John Chambers made no secret that it plans to bolster its consumer electronics division – currently made of Linksys’ home networking gears – through more acquisitions.
Now what can $6.5 billion buys these days?
I’m surprised Cisco have that much debt. It is also quite silly that they have $26 billion in overseas accounts, doesn’t really make sense.
Great article by the way.