Meta Platforms said on November 5 that it had finished selling five new bonds to investors. In the same statement, it confirmed that banks had taken up their option on another 6 million Meta shares, on top of 40 million agreed in late October.
So what is all this money for? Meta does not say. The statement only points to a separate prospectus supplement dated November 3 for more detail. That is the open question here.
For anyone who owns Meta stock, the share sale is the part that touches them directly. Every new share issued makes each existing one a smaller slice of the same company. Meta agreed to sell 40 million Class A shares on October 26. On November 4, the banks used their right to buy all 6 million extra shares on offer.
The bonds tell their own story. The shortest one, due 2031, pays 5.850% a year. The longest, due 2056, pays 7.500%. Lenders asked for more to wait longer.
The biggest piece was $4 billion of bonds paying 6.550% and due in 2036. Meta also sold $3.25 billion due 2031, $3.25 billion due 2033, $1.75 billion due 2046 and $2.75 billion due 2056. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley led the banks that sold the bonds. U.S. Bank Trust Company acts as trustee, the party that looks after bondholders' interests.
The stock sale works differently. Meta signed forward sale agreements with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The extra 6 million shares come under new agreements on terms Meta calls essentially similar to the first ones. Meta's statement does not say when those shares change hands or at what price.
The statement was signed by Katherine Kelly, Meta's corporate secretary. It lists who arranged the deals, who holds the paperwork and which law firm gave its opinion. What it does not list is the one thing a shareholder would ask first: what Meta plans to build with the money.