Buy Stock Or Another Company?

Recent research suggests that business-service companies would better serve shareholders by acquiring other companies than share repurchases. In two periods, 2002 through 2006 and 2007 through 2011, business-service companies that acquired other companies had much better performance than comparable companies that had stock repurchases. Whether this applies to other industries is unclear. Business-service companies have a strong cash return and require little capital to grow internally. For industries with different operating characteristics, this may not hold true. http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/7/cash-flow_business-services-companies-cash-flow-pitney-bowes-buybacks?currpage=1