Today I read the press release from Google’s parent company about raising $80 billion (see here). As of the writing of this post, no company has ever raised that much capital in a single deal. For context, before this announcement, Google hadn’t sold equity to raise cash since 2006, when it raised $2.1 billion in an equity offering. And per its latest quarterly financials, it had almost $127 billion in cash on its balance sheet. So an equity raise, especially one this large, is unusual for the company.

Here’s how the $80 billion is structured:

• $10 billion – Berkshire Hathaway is anchoring the deal by buying via a private placement at a reported 6.5% discount to the previous day’s closing price.
• $15 billion – Issuance of mandatory convertible preferred stock, which, as I understand it, is a hybrid instrument. It’s a stock that pays a fixed dividend yield but converts to common stock on May 15, 2029. This stock will be priced this week.
• $15 billion – Marketed sale of common stock. Bankers will pitch this to institutions in the hope that they’ll commit to buying the newly created common shares.
• $40 billion – At-the-market offering, which means that shares of common stock will be periodically sold, likely on the open market. The company doesn’t have to pre-announce these stock sales; it can offer them as it sees fit. It’s reported that at-the-market sales won’t start until the third quarter.

This is a lot of cash and a big deal. I’m curious to see how all the pieces of the deal come together. And I’m even more curious to see how the company plans to deploy such a sum.