&gt;I suspect that once they have the cash in the banks, activists will push them to &quot;enhance shareholder value&quot; with it, which is more likely share buybacks than anything else.<p>Which is perfectly reasonable.  The money belongs to the shareholders, after all.  Shareholders are generally happy if their money is going toward new profitable ventures, but they don&#x27;t normally tolerate big piles of money in the corporate kitty that aren&#x27;t doing anything.  In that case as an investor you&#x27;d rather have it disbursed somehow so you can invest it somewhere else.