By Sylvie Barak
21 November 2008, 11:22 AM

ACCORDING TO A regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft wants to get itself some senior unsecured debt securities so it can issue debt at any time. In an interview with Bloomberg, investment boffin Brad Lutz, a Veep at Declaration Management and Research LLC, reckoned a bond offering from the Vole would be in high demand thanks to a top credit rating from Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service.

The fact that the Vole operates outside of the currently cursed financial sector helps, said Lutz, noting “non-financials have generally received a warm reception by the investment-grade capital markets”. Volish CFO Chris Liddell had planned on the move since his firm’s offer to buy out Yahoo, which Mighty-Soft had planned to pay for partly through debt. But since the Micro-hoo deal is no longer on the table (or at least, that’s what Steve Ballmer would have us believe), it seems curious the Vole is still pushing ahead on the bond issue.

Whispers and speculation are already flying out of the rumour mill. Perhaps Microsoft really will make another pass at Yahoo, perhaps the Redmond Giant will turn its attention to Salesforce.com, or some other weak and vulnerable prey. It could also be the case that the firm is simply trying to take advantage of a debt market starved of investments and possibly even buy back truck loads of its own currently undervalued stock. No doubt we’ll find out soon enough.