Microsoft has raised US$19.75 billion in the third-largest US corporate bond sale of the year. It will use the funds for its planned purchase of LinkedIn.

It could have raised much more: investors put in more than $50 billion of orders for the deal in the software maker’s biggest ever sale. The strong demand helped Microsoft to borrow at lower rates than it paid for the $13 billion of bonds it raised in October.

It also saved about $40 million in annual interest payments, compared with what it was initially offering to pay.