It’s interesting times for the cloud-based industry right now as two of the major players begin rounds of creative financing. Juniper Networks is planning a $1 billion for a debt sale as a debut offering and VMware is buying back shares, up to $550 million, until the end of 2012.

Juniper’s plans are laid out both in their press releases and in an article about this debut sale in Bloomberg covers the financial environment they’re coming from,

Juniper may sell 5-, 10- and 30-year notes, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set. The offering would be the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s bond-market debut, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include capital expenditures, share repurchases and acquisitions, according to a regulatory filing that didn’t specify the size or timing of the sale.

Debt offerings aren’t that rare in any industry and $1 billion isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things. One thing that this will do is allow them further liquidity to make bold moves in the near future. Especially interesting noting their recent joint venture with Nokia-Siemens Networks but it might also demonstrate their expectations to jump forward in a big market, or even possibly make a large acquisition.

Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia seems to believe that we’re going to see a lot more of this behavior in the future. “Tech companies are increasingly selling debut offerings, which definitely shows some shift in the tech industry,” he said to Bloomberg. “As 90s tech babies become more mature there is a greater instance of debt issuing, and I expect that to increase over the next several years.”

VMWare’s Stock Buyback Plans Unveiled

As for VMware, they’ve begun to take action for their shareholders by proceeding with a share buyback. On top of their $400 million stock buyback program they’re moving forward with a $550 million stock buyback in order to offset dilution and increase the density of their stock.

[VMware] announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the purchase of up to $550 million of its Class A common stock through the end of 2012. Stock will be purchased from time to time, in the open market or through private transactions, subject to market conditions. The Company expects the equity purchase program to help partially offset dilution from its equity programs.

Through buying back stock, the cloud-based corporation probably hopes to bolster their future stock offerings and make themselves more enticing to traders. As the solvency and financial stability of a company is extremely important when it comes to getting investors and they must balance that against optioning stocks to charm potential employees.

The buyback should help VMware increase their financial performance by bringing their finances closer to home. This would enable the company to re-sell them later, perhaps at a higher price, and will probably increase the value of the remaining stocks for shareholders.

Further, as VMware takes their stocks back, it will put more in their hands to offer executives and employees as they make their move into Japan and towards iOS. Companies use their stock reserves in order to leverage their ability to draw in interested parties who see the future in the company and want to invest in it.