NEW YORK, Aug. 24 -- On August 12 Intel sold 210,526,315 new shares at $95 each. The offering had been announced at $15 billion and was pushed up to $20 billion on the strength of demand, with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup running the books and net proceeds of about $19.7 billion. It was one of the largest equity raises an American technology company has ever put through.

Twelve days later, Intel trades at $87.78.

Everyone who bought that offering is under water. By Eastern Herald's calculation the 210.5 million shares issued at $95 are worth roughly $18.5 billion at Monday's price, against the $20.0 billion paid for them: a paper loss of about $1.52 billion, or 7.6 per cent, in under a fortnight. Intel fell anot...