Wouldn't it be hilarious if the bank prior to the buyback bought a bunch of the stock (I don't know if this is true, but seems plausible). Then in that case the company would literally be taking out a loan from the bank in order to buy the stock from the bank. So then the question is if its possible for the bank to claim some sort of thing where when they sell the stock to the actual company that it is some special type of transaction and maybe gets favorable tax treatment? Wow I want to look into that.. sounds interesting / shady if thats possible to do..