[thevagrant]

I've heard that buybacks can be weighted toward purchasing stock back from management and staff before buying back from the market.

If this is true, then I'd prefer dividends. I can put the capital in another company if I choose.

Buybacks seem like another lever to help management class cash out as a company starts to slump.

[takinola]

This is incorrect. If the company is public, there is no way to buy stock from a particular set of shareholders without impacting the price of the stock owned by other shareholders. If you own stock in a company that is looking to give money back to shareholders, you definitely want them to do it via buybacks (rather than dividends) for the tax benefit.

[thevagrant]

Ok,happy to be wrong in that case. I'm not sure where I read buybacks can be manipulated so I won't speculate further.

[blitzar]

You heard wrong.