NEW YORK - Verizon Communications (
NYSE:VZ,
Stock Forum) has sold $49 billion in bonds, the largest corporate bond sale in history.
The sale dwarfs the previous record, Apple's (
NASDAQ:AAPL,
Stock Forum) sale of $17 billion in bonds in April.
The mammoth bond sale goes with a mammoth deal. Proceeds from the sale on Wednesday will help Verizon buy the rest of its U.S. wireless business from partner Vodafone (
NASDAQ:VOD,
Stock Forum). That $130 billion deal is expected to rank as the second-largest on record when completed. Verizon will use cash and stock for remainder of the buyout.
Verizon had to pay a hefty price to investors. It priced $11 billion-worth of 10-year notes at a yield of 5.19 per cent, according to a deal document obtained by The Associated Press. That is well above the 4.51 per cent yield for similar Verizon bonds.