The money had to come from somewhere and so Cisco has announced last week that it is issuing $5.5 billion in debt to fund its $6.9 billion purchase of cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta.
The company said it expected to issue the senior unsecured notes in a mix of three-year floating rate notes, and five and ten-year fixed rate notes.
Citigroup, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley are joint managers of the offering, Cisco said. Its shares edged up 29 cents to $19.84 on the Nasdaq.