Sounds more to me like they were naive when it came to the inevitable PR war that would follow. They should have come out guns blazing with all the dirt they had. Instead they said very little and it just appeared nonsensical.
Helen toner talks about this, and essentially the employees thought it was bring sama back or the company dissolves and they lose their jobs.
This was right near a tender offer, so employees had real money on the line in the short term.