If outstanding shares are bought up from the open market by the company, basically removing those shares from circulation, it increases the value of the existing shares in shareholder pockets, thus giving them money, by virtue of the value increase.

In other words, Wall Street looks at earnings per share and determines the value of each share of stock by how much each share of the company earns per quarter/per year. If you pull shares out of the pool, each outstanding share has more value. It's a tax free way of saying thanks to the people who buy your shares...until they sell the stock.

I'm not saying this is what happened, I have no idea. I'm just saying there are other ways to give money to shareholders than just divedends.