You might be surprised how little research companies do before launching blockchain initiatives. After creating the Hyperledger consortium, IBM were actually surprised when it turned out business didn't want to share all their dealings with all their competitors, but only with the specific other business each deal is with:

https://lists.hyperledger.org/pipermail/hyperledger-requirem...

https://lists.hyperledger.org/pipermail/hyperledger-technica...

The answer is, of course, that most "blockchain initiatives" are hypeware.

You sound like you are being sarcastic but Ethereum is a vaperware scam so yes they did not research the project.