[jesuscript]

Well, it has long been argued that stock buy back is an indicator a company that doesn’t know how to invest into its own r&d. Not to say that Amazon is the type of company that doesn’t know where to move it’s people, perhaps they don’t know at the moment and would rather save on the labor.

Unless your company is in financial hardship, ditching headcount is similar to a stock buy back. You don’t know how to invest the money, and you don’t know how to invest the people - yet.

[roflyear]

More likely, poor management due to growth incentives caused a lot of unnecessary hires and now's an opportune time to do layoffs.

[aketchum]

stock buy backs are a more tax efficient version of a dividend (at least in theory)