It's a failure of management in any case. Just like returning cash via excessive dividends, it's an admission that the current management doesn't have the imagination required to use the assets at hand in a profitable way.

So many of the large companies today are one trick ponies trying to milk their singular profit center to the nth degree instead of diversifying into new niches.

Meta failed spectacularly in the direction they did try- but ultimately, like Google, even that (VR) was a way to expand their advertising business, rather than truly expand their footprint.

Apple seems the singular Silicon Valley company truly able to find new niches and expand their competencies. I do wish they'd stuck with Jobs original obstinate insistence of not paying dividends- it was a forcing function to keep them actively investing that cash into new ventures.