Assuming the company decides not to pay a dividend to the
shareholders (so the
shareholders can reinvest the money themselves), financial managers within Pfizer must identify new projects that offer a
higher rate of
return than what they could
get if they simply invested the money in the financial market (this being the opportunity cost of capital).
Outerwall has historically produced
high returns on capital, and it's a business that doesn't need much tangible capital to produce huge amounts of cash flow (an attractive business), but it has been run similar to companies that
get purchased by private equity firms — leverage up the balance sheet, issue a dividend (or buyout some
shareholders), thus keeping very little equity «at risk».