Doesn't Basecamp have something like ~50 employees? It's a very small company. The concerns around the current issues scale to larger companies just the same. But saying "1/3 of employees" doesn't really amount to that many people, in this specific case. It feels more hyperbole and click bait to phrase it that way.
I think the impact of this statement would be more interesting with a big company. If Amazon or Microsoft were to lose 1/3 of their workforce, that would be something big. But knowing the size of Basecamp, it just kind of makes me shrug.
I'm guessing that Basecamp will be easily able to replace those people that took the buyout and will probably just be better for it in the long run.
[edit: removed unnecessary comment-on-voting, per HN guidelines]