except a buy back is not a bandaid solution. A buy back is often...

except a buy back is not a bandaid solution. A buy back is often the most effective means of growing EPS.

After all why would you want to buy into a company/project that has added risk (ie. takeovers come with risks) for a lower earnings per share multiple than you could earn from buying back your own company (whos risk you better understand).

A buy back is not a prop! It is a earnings improver. A fundamentally positive action.

I for one would prefer the $1billion be spend on a buy back which will be 15-40% accretive over the first 12 months (dependent on any leverage) than see it spent on an acquisition which will not provide the same return and may even prove be dilutive in the short term.

Growing the business size simply for the sake of being bigger is the kind of model that ABC Learning investors would be very familiar with. Ask them now if they would have preferred to see consolidation or reckless 'growth'