CMKM Diamonds Inc. (fka CMKX)

[Mark_Leh]

You can repurchase shares and put them in the treasury to be reissued at some future date or you can retire them. Retiring the shares removes these shares from the A/S. There is a big difference

Uh, are you sure you meant that? Retiring shares has no effect on the authorized shares.

Retiring repurchased shares changes the treasury stock dollar entry and the shares issued entry on the balance sheet. I glossed over this because I thought it was too technical a point to make to the person I was responding to since he seemed to be grappling with far, far more basic issues. For the ordinary investor who is not scouring balance sheets the difference between repurchasing and retiring shares is subtle enough that I will stick with my original assertion.