Perhaps I'm being simple, but I don't really understand the problem here. Companies are sitting on too much cash that they don't know what to do with. There is only so much that can productively be spent on R&D. If they don't do something with their cash, investors will start demanding a dividend. Once you start giving dividends it becomes hard to stop giving them. To prevent perpetual dividends, companies perform a buy back which also helps out investors but is a one time thing which doesn't need to be repeated.