4 Big Tech giants have plowed over $1 trillion into stock buybacks in 10 years — more than Tesla or Meta’s entire market value::Apple poured over $600 billion into buybacks in the decade to March 31, exceeding Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta’s combined spending.
They were basically illegal until 1982. It was considered, and I believe still is, market manipulation.
Going public is a way to raise money. It seems like a stock buyback would simply be a way to pay it back, at a fair market value, and eventually take back control of the company. Long-term that sounds like a good move, as then the company is no longer saddled with their primary responsibility as making money for their stockholders. Instead it can focus on the doing stuff that actually matters and is valuable for the long-term health of the company, it’s employees, and the planet… ideally.
Ideally. Unfortunately, the people doing the buybacks now are no different than 19th century industrial barons; once they have a household name due to sheer wealth, they stop pretending (if they even bothered to in the first place) that they’re in any way good people.
Hah! If only that were true.