There are reasons not to use the money to buy back its own shares:

1. Share buyback requires regulatory approval and would take time and money for the filing and approval process. It's much quicker and cheaper to distribute the cash as return of capital to SH.

2. From the SH's standpoint, many would prefer cash distribution as they can use the cash whichever way they want.

3. Finally, share buy back is not supposed to be used as a tool to manipulate the sp, that's illegal, and there are restrictions as to number and timing (how many and how fast) of the buyback process, just to avoid the artificial price jump.

What management has done is the proper way to distribute unneeded cash efficiently to SH's and it's something many if not most SH's would welcome. JMO