> I'm trying to come up with an explanation why TI would do that.

When I hear these kind of stories I always wonder this too. Like, who was allowed to turn this into a company policy and why on earth did they think it worth their time? Usually something that would seem to harm the public image and goodwill of the firm.

This speculation in this comment seems pretty convincing imo:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25683856

(mainly the part about legal getting into the driver seat in a semi-fossilized sort of company like TI).