Exxon Positioning to Buy BP

[timhau]

Obviously the EM shares are worth far less now than when they were buying them back at $90/share a few years ago

... which is exactly why I don't like share buy-backs as an alternative to dividends. Companies typically buy back their own shares when they have excess money, which is also typically when their share prices are at a high level. An extreme example of how to go wrong with this is provided by Nokia; they had a share buy-back program in 2003-2008, and they bought over a billion of their own shares back with €19 billion, bringing the number of outlying shares from about 4.9 billion to 3.8 billion. Today, Nokia's market cap is €26 billion.

 

[theprestige]

I'm sure other members can come up with a link regarding this as I've heard it on the news already.

INRM, on what news have you heard this, exactly?

And to all you other members, any links, or are we just engaging in a fantasy discussion of INRM's latest twaddle?