B,

You are technically correct - which is the best kind of correct. They could manipulate the "earned" dates.

I also like the buy back program. The stock is an asset which can be used for M&A. As I said before, if there was no buy back program now it would tell me that PTSC doesn't see any substantial SP rise in the near future (none that beats the short term rates we can all get). The question is, how big is this buy back program - how much faith do they have? That could be telling.