Please ignore last post That is pretty much the answer that I received verbatim. I guess it makes sense for several reasons:
This will help avoid a balloon bond payment in the summer of around 200 million and the refinancing risk associated with that.
It will lower the potential share dilution in the summer if the stock price rises and the options end in the money.
They are buying them back at a cheaper price than issued as the options attached have dropped in value along with share price over the past two years.
Lowers the D/E (leverage) ratio which has increased due to the drop in share price.
That said, I do want them back buying their own shares as they are very cheap relative to their cash flows, book value and pretty much any valuation metric. That said, I realize that there is only so much cash available at any one time.