Can't blame Icahn for trying, but he's full of shit. At a price:earnings ratio of 13, Apple Inc. is not particularly undervalued. The stock price reflects an expectation of future growth. In a slow-growing or static company, that ratio would be lower. A stock by-back just cannibalizes capital that could be used for expansion or acquisitions.

That's why cities like Seattle, San Francisco are dead to new growth.

By making their rents sky high and restricting growth through GMA and property tax caps, they are doing the same as corporations buying back their own stock.

It is not uncommon for successful firms to hold too much cash even though they don't have anything to do with it. That's because managers at the firm want an emergency fund in case they fuck up. Tech firms are notorious for this practice. That cash can and often should be returned to shareholders via dividends or stock buybacks. The buyback raises the price of the stock because investors see the buyback as a signal that managers at the firm believe the current stock price is too low and that's why they are buying it back now. Shareholders who sell back to the firm use the proceeds to make different investments, which allocates the capital efficiently instead of having it just bottled up in the firm's bank account doing nothing but earning interest. It's a beautiful system. Brings tears to my eyes.

tech firms also have big M&A jonesez