I'm not sure what your theory is here, his involvement with the company has been in decline for 10 months since he was replaced as CEO, and by all accounts I'm aware of, the last 10 months have been full of good changes for the company.
Pretty sure parent is saying that it was done during the Apple call in order to mitigate the PR onslaught.
In that case I am curious what makes cwe think it's bad PR rather than good PR, and also curious if there is some unstated reasoning, other than pure speculation, that makes cwe believe it to be timed intentionally.
Zynga has a history of timing their shady announcements like this, that's all.