Dell took a key step today toward the acquisition of EMC, offering $20 billion in investment-grade bonds.

And investors liked it. The six-tranche bond deal received $87 billion in orders by late morning, according to Reuters. That enthusiasm was one reason the debt offering was higher than the $16 billion that had been expected.

Dell itself is rated at junk level, so it's significant that the company could assemble an investment-grade deal.

Likely to close in June or July, Dell's $67 billion purchase of EMC comes in three major pieces: the debt offering; a $24.05-per-share cash payment to EMC shareholders; and the creation of a VMware tracking stock.

The tracking stock would help emphasize the value of VMware, but it drew some quizzical reactions when the deal was announced in October. Tracking stocks don't have a great reputation, thanks to their role in the dotcom bubble, and the creation of one would apparently force Dell, which went private in 2013, to disclose some information about its earnings.

Dell is making a few other moves to help finance the deal. Its SecureWorks business went public in April, and Dell sold its IT services unit (the former Perot Systems division) to NTT in March.

Dell's Sonicwall and Quest businesses were also considered sale targets. Bloomberg reported last month that Dell might have to settle for selling software assets of both units.

EMC shares were trading roughly flat at $27.63 in after-hours today. That's about where the stock was when the Dell deal was announced. Since then, it's dipped as low as $23.90, but it's recovered in recent weeks.