This is widely believed, but not quite true. The massive amounts of spending on stock buybacks - money that was desperately need if the Cloud business was to have any chance of keeping pace - barely keeps the stock price stable. Existing shareholders are treading water.
The real beneficiaries of propping up the stock price are options holders. Without the buybacks, existing options would be underwater, and new options would have little attraction.
So the question one should be asking is: who has lots of options?