The rest of LUMN's assets is just about $35. As long as LUMN is trading around $12, who is in their right mind will over pay $20B for LUMN's assets. That is probably the main reason why shorts are not go away... because they have big profit in their mind.. and not worry about few million of loss.
It is important to buy back stock as much as possible, for those who do not realize LUMN's assets value, they will sell. If and when LUMN reduce 50% of O/S shares, there will be less investors to share those hidden assets value. 600M O/S shares, $6.3B of EBIDTA, 10X Assets valuation, that is $74 a share.
Will Storey focus on create value for shareholders? No. Not really. He get everything he wanted. A SPY company CEO, free corporate jet, $5B a year to spend, 35K employees let him orders around, and shareholders do not care how he spend the money and lost money for shareholders. Where do you find that kind of shareholders?
He is the road block to shareholder's value. He won't buy back stock, he won't let anyone buy this company. He must go first....