The June 17 story “Airbnb said to secure $1 billion debt facility” reported about financing for Airbnb and Uber using a combination of cash, the value of which I don’t need explained to me, and something called “debt facility,” whose “value” I don’t get at all.
To those of us in the 99 percent, debt is the opposite of an asset, yet this story implies that something called a “debt facility” adds to, rather than subtracts from, the available cash. Adding to the dilemma, none of the Wall Street whizzes who arranged this deal would comment on it … an ominous development given their track record with “innovative” financing.
As I myself possess a very (evidently) valuable mass of debt, the remains of my home mortgage, an explanation of this unfamiliar, no, actually oxymoronic, term would have been appreciated. In the future, this reader would like reporters to define alien terms so that we might have some idea what the story is about. It’s good journalism.