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That makes no sense. Apple management is going to buy out stockholders with their own money?

When you take a company private you have to bring in money from the outside, either using investor groups or borrowing.

Why not? If Apple's management and investors believe that the market is not pricing AAPL fairly, it makes perfect sense to go private.

Yes, but they can't do it with money that belongs to Apple, because the shareholders, i.e. the people that need to be bought out, already own that money.

They could just do buybacks until no one else has any shares left? http://seekingalpha.com/article/1725412-buyback-apple-could-...

Not true. A company can definitely take itself private by using its own money. It's already happening when a company is buying back its shares. i.e. reduction in equity by using cash, one on each side of the balance sheet. The shares are then entered on the books as treasury shares.

So the last guy to own a share owns the company?

That's not how it works.

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