I remember a time when I purchased stock through the 401K after Paul Alaire left. Business seemed to be going strong and employees were happy. Then one day the bottom fell out because Xerox was cooking the books. Stock options became worthless except to the executives whose shares were re-priced to the lower amount. They made out ok but the schmucks lost lots of money. Same thing happening today. If you read the quarterly statements, 50% of Free Cash Flow will be spent on dividends and share repurchases. Shares are given to executives, John V's minimum $10 million in bonuses payable in stock each year at a share price of lets say $25.00 equals 400,000 shares of stock paying $1.00 per share dividend. That's a nice $400,000 extra payout each year while you try to drive up the share price then sell.
283 million shares outstanding equals $283 million in dividends. Free cash flow was about $900 million. Leaves room to increase the dividend or buy more shares to lower the float. Not a bad scheme. How many shares does Icahn and Deason own collecting dividends while they reorganize the company?