I think the journalist is bang on point. The company can pay $1.5B in dividends but cannot pay enough to keep their workforce. Corps will do everything to avoid paying their workforce fair share of the profits.
The Intel workforce and leadership is failing to perform and continue bringing in sufficient revenue to justify a workforce of its size, and they will all lose their jobs anyway if it continues.
That seems a good reason not to spend money on dividends which I don't think will help the company become more profitable. Cutting jobs to save money is understandable, but the savings should be used to invest into the business.
Not saying I support this, because losing work sucks, but shareholders are the ones that own the company - the C suite is just there to run it on their behalf.
If shareholders think that firing a bunch of people to “eliminate waste” and pulling capital from the company in the form dividends to reinvest elsewhere is the way to maximise their returns (as a whole) then that’s what will happen.
The Intel workforce and leadership is failing to perform and continue bringing in sufficient revenue to justify a workforce of its size, and they will all lose their jobs anyway if it continues.