The case of Evergreen Solar (ESLR) suggests counterparty risk exposure be added to the litany of misgivings on the economic efficiency, absolute performance, and governance conflicts of ASRs. Evergreen Solar in July 2008 issues a convertible, enters into an offsetting, broker-backed long...

The current study adds consideration of a $1.7 billion accelerated stock repurchase (ASR) by Hewlett-Packard (HP) to a recent analysis of 2006-2007 ASRs by Applied Materials, Cypress Semiconductor, Linear Technology, and Xilinx. The HP addition to company case studies leaves fundamental findings...

A previous study failed to identify economic benefits to explain the 2006-2007 popularity of accelerated stock repurchase programs (ASRs) funded through issuance of convertible debt. The case study of a $600 million transaction by Cypress Semiconductor did find cosmetic advantages in terms of...

Antigravity introduces a transaction so implausibly attractive it would be deemed impossible were it not that U.S. companies already float an inferior equivalent at a rate of nearly $500 billion per year. A Cashless Buyback(tm) is exactly like a cash buyback minus the risk and should be viewed...

An earlier report suggested that counterparty risk exposure be added to the litany of misgivings on the economic efficiency, absolute performance, and governance of accelerated stock repurchase agreements (ASRs). In that study, Evergreen Solar in July 2008 issues a convertible, enters into an...

It is time for accounting to recognize the existence of stock exchanges and stop treating the equity accounts of public corporations as if they belonged to 15th century private partnerships. When Pacioli's codification of the principles of accounting was published in 1494, stock exchanges did...

In 2002, the SEC, citing a need for transparency, promulgated new disclosure rules pertaining to corporate stock repurchase programs. As a result, companies since 2004 have been required to provide monthly reports on the volume and pricing of their stock buybacks. Under the new reporting...

Previous studies of corporate stock repurchase programs found low efficiency (high execution cost), questionable performance (inconsistent profitability), idiosyncratic transaction reporting (monthly cost reports may not match actual monthly transactions), archaic shareholder accounting...

In June 2008, a study by Sen confirmed previous findings that 10b5-1 insider stock sale programs (quot;plan salesquot;) are conducted after unusual price run ups, but Sen also found that, in months subsequent to plan sales, stock performance then essentially matched the market. Sen's results on...

The current study briefly considers KLA-Tencor's 2007 $750 million accelerated stock repurchase (ASR). Companies commonly indicate ASRs contractually promise execution of stock buybacks at a discount to market. To the contrary, analysis of a small sample of 2006-2007 ASRs finds:1) Inferior...