Companies are not individuals. It doesn't help shareholders for the company to keep a large cash pile - investors would much rather take the money and reinvest

Companies are not individuals. It doesn't help shareholders for the company to keep a large cash pile - investors would much rather take the money and reinvest it elsewhere. Massively profitable companies like Apple (and MSFT in its early days) could get away with this because their ROE numbers are already higher vastly higher than the rest of the market. But for most industries optimizing ROE is important. Its not really as risky as it sounds. A company can simply dilute itself and create new shares out of thin air and sell them to raise cash should their small buffer prove inadequate. A human can't do that. For whatever reason Toshiba considers it preferable to sell assets rather than create new shares. Likely because the scandal has depressed the stock price.