Activision Blizzard Begins Massive Layoffs

do stock repurchases: basically a way to launder money by evading taxes. the long and short is that instead of paying shareholders $100 via dividends, which are taxable dividend income, the co spends $100 to buy the shares (say 50 shares at $2 each). if the shares were purchased for $1 each, then the basis increases by $1, so the it only creates $50 taxable income.

edit: mistake

Repurchasing stock is more or less accomplishing the same thing, but by purchasing shares back from the market instead of just giving the money to shareholders. This makes their shares more valuable — but has different tax implications.

Both are ways to return profits to shareholders, and are activities usually done by mature businesses and not growing ones. (The reason a business returns money is it doesn’t know how to successfully reinvest the money.)

Stock repurchases are a company buying stock back from shareholders, sometimes at higher than market value. Often these are seen as paying off investors similarly to non-reoccurring dividends. Sometimes companies do it move ownership back towards employees (by moving it back into benefit pools), but it's often as not these days that it just goes into executive salaries or board golden parachutes.